#bc computers did NOT exist yet

[gingerale2017]

sometimes i forget about cress like im thinking of a scenario and i skip a character and its cress not bc i dont like her (i AM her actually) but i create stories where her certain expertise (hacking and illegal stuff) doesn’t fit w the plot im cooking up.

i can’t make a kaider fic without thorne and i cant write thorne without cress. so i have to somehow make her more relevant than just being thorne’s gf but an essential person to the plot.’idk how to explain it but i ALWAYS have to change smth abt my story to make cress fit

[audliminal]

Survivability Bias Pt 5

Masterpost Ao3

“So hypothetically,” Superboy begins, glancing over at Robin. “Say I met another meta, and they, like, needed a civilian identity...” He trails off, listening intently. Trying to get anything from Robin's expression is pointless - between his skill at maintaining his composure, and the expression obscuring mask, there's not a lot to be read on his face. Instead Superboy focuses on his heartbeat, which speeds up the smallest amount as Robin turns away from the tablet he'd been working with, and settles his full attention directly onto Superboy.

“Hypothetically,” Robin repeats.

“Yeah. You know, in theory, if that ever happened.” Robin stares at Superboy for a moment, presumably reading everything that's missing from his own face in Superboy's.

“Well. In theory, the Justice League has the means to grant any meta hero a full identity. Is this about you? Because honestly it's insane that they haven't bothered yet, and I will straight up make you one right now if you-”

“No, it's not about me,” Superboy interrupts. “But like, you could do that? Without the Justice League’s support, I mean?. Like, say if this hypothetical person really didn't want the Justice League knowing about them?”

“You met a meta who doesn't like the Justice League.”

“I don't think it's really about the Justice League specifically. I mean, they definitely don't exist, but if they did, then I would say that the second I showed up they were bracing for a fight. Like before they even saw who I was.” Robin sets his tablet to the side without looking, and leans just a touch towards Superboy as he talks. It's honestly wild, he thinks, how the other boy can manage such intense eye contact through white lenses, but, well, that's the bats for you.

“Theoretically, I could absolutely make this person an identity, if they did exist. But I would want to meet them first.”

“Cool, cool,” Superboy says leaning back into the couch. “I offered to introduce you and they said they'd consider it. I think, maybe they don't trust adults very much, bc they asked if you were our age.”

“Theoretically?”

“Exactly.”

* * *

Though the specific details as to when the founding member first became acquainted, it was only after multiple incidents of near-worldwide devastation that they realized the necessity of an organized front.

The details of the forming of the Justice League should be fascinating, if only for the revelation that world-ending disasters are, apparently, relatively common in this universe. In a way, it’s a comforting thought. Memories of Dan sit as heavily as ever in Danny’s mind, especially now that he’s effectively lost his family, just like in Dan’s timeline. Of course, here there’s presumably no risk of him getting fused with Vlad, so probably that specific threat isn’t likely, but - well, if it comes to the worst and Danny does go mad, there’s at least a reasonably good chance that the heroes here will be able to stop him.

On the other hand, this also means that if the heroes turn out to actually be evil or whatever, he has less chance of getting away. Of course, Superboy hadn’t really seemed evil, but Danny really has no clue if he would even be able to tell. Sure he’d known Vlad was a nightmare from a mile away, but Vlad wasn’t exactly subtle about his obsession with Danny. Evil steeped in calculation would surely be harder to spot, wouldn’t it?

“I don’t mean to interrupt,” someone says from behind Danny. “But are you going to be using that computer for much longer?” Danny blinks, staring back at the teen who’s looking at him nervously. Danny glances over at the clock, but it’s now reading 2:30, which means that he’s been here for like three hours already,and he really hasn’t read much of anything in all that time.

“You can have it,” Danny says, pulling back to shove his notebook into his backpack.

“You sure, man? I don’t wanna chase you off, but I really could use it. Physics project, you know?” 

“Yeah, I get it. Wasn’t really making much progress anyway. Might as well take a break.” Danny says. He never got to take physics in school, but he remembers struggling with lit class enough to understand the sentiment. And he really isn’t making any progress, if he’s been staring at the same Justice League page for multiple hours.

“You working on a history project or something?”

“Yeah.” It’s close enough to the truth.

“What teacher d’you have? It’s pretty cool that they’re letting you do it on the Justice League.”

“Oh, uh,” Danny quails for a moment, focusing on closing the tab so he doesn’t tell the kid he’s not going to school. After all it’s probably reasonable to assume the laws about delinquency are the same here. “It’s more about the meta protection acts than like, the Justice League itself. And I’m not really local, so...”

“Ah, that explains why I don’t recognize you,” the other teen grins.

“Yeah,” Danny says, stepping back so the other teen can take over the computer. “Well, good luck with your physics project.”

“Thanks, man, and good luck with your meta-acts essay.” The other teen turns his attention to the computer as Danny steps away, heading for the library exit. Clearly research isn’t going well today, and Jazz would definitely yell at him for trying to force his brain to focus when it clearly doesn’t want to. He pauses outside for a moment, trying to remember what Jazz said to when your focus was shot. Obviously part one was to take a break, but he’s certain that she’d had more to say than that.

He thinks he remembers her going on a rant about monotony, and boredom, but he doesn’t really feel bored. Actually more than anything he feels wired and anxious. And anxious means he should...

“Turn slow tigers into fast tigers,” Danny mutters, gaining a deeply confused look from the couple other patrons standing outside the library. He ignores them, though, and starts heading for the nearby park, so he can do some stretches. Fast tigers means he has to exercise, which he would usually complain about but- well, his routine has definitely been a lot less active since he got here. Other than the train crash the other week, Danny’s been spending most of his time sitting and reading, and while it’s been insanely nice to have nobody hunting him, honestly the idea of exercise sounds almost horrifyingly nice.

He does his best to run through the kind of stretches he remembers doing in PE, warming himself up as best he can before starting to jog the little looping path. The jeans make it a little more annoying than he remembers in PE, but luckily they’re kind of loose, so they’re not too terrible to run in, and Danny has no intention of going very fast. There’s too many people around even if he wanted to, and he does his best to be polite and not in the way as he jogs. it doesn’t take long for his breathing to go heavy with exertion, and as he finishes his second circuit, Dannyt relaxes into it, and just lets himself run.

Thirty minutes later, Danny is feeling markedly more tired, and he lets himself slow to a walk. His heart is thudding rhythmically in his chest, the occasional stutter only more prominent in the heightened pounding, and his legs feel a little wobbly, but he keeps walking, The sweat he’d worked up feels gross against his clothes, so probably he could’ve gone about it better, but Danny figures a whole thirty minutes without worrying about his existential situation is more than worth feeling gross for a bit. His usual tactic of sneaking into the local gym while it’s closed isn’t gonna cut it during the day, so he’ll have to wait to shower, but in the meantime, he can walk off the remaining adrenaline, and decide what to do for dinner.

* * *

“Hey, did you really mean what you said about me having a civilian identity?” Robin looks up as Superboy sits in the air beside his work desk.

“I have four different identities, ready for you to choose from,” Robin says.

“Wait do you just keep possible identities around in case anybody needs them? Is that, like, a Bat thing?” Superboy leans over to examine the tool Robin had been working on. Like everything else he uses, it’s emblazoned with a bat insignia, not that the marking does anything to help identify what the little machine even does. It’s ridiculously small, definitely not any kind of weapon, unless Robin’s been tinkering with the idea of murderous nanobots, which honestly wouldn’t be that shocking. Of any hero Superboy’s ever met, Robin seems uniquely predisposed towards mad scientist-type stuff.

“I keep exactly two emergency identities on hold, but those are separate. I was talking specifically about identities for you.” Superboy freezes, turning his eyes back to Robin, who looks at him like this is a perfectly normal thing to say. Superboy is at least ninety percent sure it isn’t, but what the hell.

“What the hell,” Superboy echoes his own thoughts. “Why would I ever need four identities?”

“You don’t need four, you need options. There’s no point in giving you an identity you hate.”

“Okay, but people don’t get to choose their names? So why would I care.”

“Most people don’t choose their names because most people receive them when they’re babies, but everyone has the ability to change it later if they decide they don’t like it. You have the unique advantage of being cognitively developed enough to have a say from the beginning, and you should have the opportunity to use it.”

“Huh...” That’s actually kind of sweet. “Do you like your name? I mean, like, that’s not why you don’t want to tell us, right?”

“My name is adequate,” Robin answers slowly. “It’s mine and I am... accustomed to it. The reason I haven’t told you my name is because it... implicates the other bats, and Batman considers that to be a significant security risk.”

“Oh, yeah. I guess that’s fair. Could I see the names you were thinking of?”

“Certainly,” Robin says, pushing back from the desk. “Let me get my tablet.”

* * *

“Uh, Superboy?” Danny shouts, trying to ignore how fucking ridiculous this feels. “Are you, like, free to talk? I think I want to meet your friend.” He’s hovering in the sky about a mile out from his town, in as close to the middle of nowhere as he could manage. He’d done a bit of looking into Robin this morning, before making his decision, and what a wild discovery that Robin was a name that had been held by multiple individuals. It makes him think of Dani, and he almost hopes that wherever she ends up, she might use the name Phantom too. After all, if anyone else rights to it, it would be his genetic clone.

Danny has no clue if time is flowing the same here as back home, but with any luck his friends have managed to orchestrate Dani’s escape too. It was always going to be a little more dodgy than Danny himself- his death being inherently tied to the portal had meant it was a bit more responsive to him than it otherwise would be, and that detail had been pretty quintessential to the rewiring that had needed to be done in order to send him to an entirely different universe, but they’d been hoping that her nature as a post-portal clone would mean that she had a close enough tie to the portal to send her through as well. Not that Danny would likely ever get to know for sure.

The soft rush of air alerted Danny to someone’s arrival, and he just managed to keep himself from falling into a defensive posture as he turned to look at the newly arrived Superboy, and the other teen being carried in his arms. Danny recognized the other boys outfit as that of the current Robin, who was now staring at Danny through a pair of disconcerting white-lenses set into a domino mask.

“We were free so I figured we’d just come meet you?” Superboy says with a nervous grin.

“Yeah, that’s, um, kind of obvious. Should we land?” Danny’s pretty sure that none of the Bats have flight, and like, as much as flying is cool as hell, Robin doesn’t look particularly impressed by it.

“That would be preferable, please,” Robin says, confirming Danny’s thoughts. He nods, and heads for the ground. Superboy follows just as quickly, and a moment later they’re all gathered on a gravel road in farmland.

“So, uh,” Superboy begins, once he’s deposited Robin on his own two feet.

“You told him about me before,” Danny says. Superboy may have had plenty of time to fly over here, but there hadn’t been enough of a delay to have explained the situation to Robin just now.

“It was an entirely theoretical conversation,” Robin offers dryly, before Superboy can respond.

“What does that even mean?”

“It means that he was asking if I could theoretically help a meta acquire an identity if they were uncomfortable with the Justice League. Nothing of it was mentioned to anyone else and he told me no details about who any theoretical metas might be.” Danny blinks, taking a moment to process Robin’s explanation. In a way it makes sense, and he can see why Superboy would want to make sure that what he was offering was even possible.  Besides, it’s pretty obvious already that they both really trust each other.

“Okay, sure. I guess I get it.”

“I would like to know why you’re concerned about the Justice League, though, if you’re willing to share. If there’s anything illicit happening-”

“Oh, no, it’s not like that,” Danny cuts in as soon as he realizes where Robin’s going. He’s suddenly glad he’d already decided to explain his situation in more detail. “It’s like, I’m not from here so my shit is entirely unrelated? It’s just, they’re -you’re?- associated with the government, you know?”

“And your government is a threat to you.”

“Honestly, everything was. But they can’t get to me here. It’s why my friends- that’s why I’m here.”

“Okay, but are you sure you’re safe? Because like, space travel is a thing, and if you need protection...” Superboy trails off, looking concerned.

“I mean, it should be fine? Even if the GIW did manage to figure out inter-dimensional travel, I’m pretty sure they wouldn’t be able to figure out where specifically I went, so yeah.” Danny really doesn’t want to think about a GIW that’s gone inter-dimensional.

“Well if they did manage to make it here, they would be breaching the meta protection acts if they tried anything, so I hope if that does happen you inform myself or Superboy.”

“Yeah,” Danny laughs. “It’s honestly been kind of crazy trying to wrap my head around the idea I have protections here?”

“That’s understandable. Plenty of meta-individuals have complicated feelings about them, even if they grew up here.”

“Oh?”

“Well, just because it’s illegal to exploit or discriminate against someone doesn’t necessarily mean it doesn’t happen. And metas who have been treated poorly often have trouble trusting in the protection acts.”

“Or sometimes you just didn’t get that info programmed into you and then you have to adjust to your understanding of history being manufactured,” Superboy mutters under his breath. Robin doesn’t react at all and Danny’s pretty sure he wasn’t supposed to hear it either. The implications are a bit concerning, but Danny���s not about to press him on it.

“Yeah, I mean that’s kind of where I am, I guess. I think I’d like it if you’d be willing to make me a legal identity? I’m basically homeless at the moment, so I’d like to be able to get a job or something. But I’d really rather not end up on the Justice League’s radar yet. You guys seem nice, but databases are- a lot.”

“Easy enough. I can actually do it all with my personal resources, so the info never goes anywhere near the Justice League’s databases. We just need to determine what name history you want to have.”

“I mean, I’d like to keep my name, if possible?”

“Sure, What’s your name?” Robin tilts his head.

“Danny Fenton.”

[ssivinee]

✧Wounded Heart✧

Part 1 | Part 2

BEBE! Bada Lee x F Reader: You've always been known as the smartest student in school, while Bada was known as the campus heartthrob and player. She decides to take advantage of her situation, but puts your heart on the line along with her passing grade.

Word Count: 9.2k

TW: Slight self harm

Note: This is the longest fic I've written so far😮‍💨. I felt so evil writing this, but I HOPE YOU ALL ENJOY THE ANGST😈. ALSO, please check out my new rule. If not, it just warns blogs with no pfps and reblogs. I have a high chance of soft-blocking you, as I may get shadowbanned bc Tumblr can't defer you from bots.

Character Vision Board

You were never one to gain any attention from anyone. Frankly, you liked it that way.

Known as the most reserved yet nerdiest student in school, you were never called by your name. How could anyone put a name to your face when no one knew what it was. People had only given you the title of top student in university.

Most people knew of your existence, but by always wearing your oversized hoodie over your head, glasses, and mask, you kept your identity a secret amongst your peers. You survived high school like this, so being in your final year of university and still being able to maintain it was a breeze.

It was a regular Monday morning, and you sat in the library before classes, trying to freshen up on your Physics lesson yesterday. You woke up at 6 a.m. to get ready, showered, and ate breakfast with an energy drink before heading out to the library. That was your daily routine, the loner lifestyle, if you will.

As you typed away on your computer, the buzz of other students started coming in waves at 9 a.m., hitting the clock. That meant it was time to head to your first class. After multiple hours of classes, hand-cramping notes, and sitting in the back of every subject, you headed to your favorite class, computer science. For some reason, your brain was highly advanced in this area, making it enjoyable.

30 minutes go by, and just sitting in the back of the class, a tall, nonchalant figure walks in. You visibly see your teacher's face contort as she rolls her eyes at the student. The notorious Bada Lee came in late once again. You believed she began to do it on purpose at this point, as she stopped giving excuses for her tardiness by the second week.

The thought certainly loitered in the back of your mind. You never understood why Bada was the way she was. This was one of the few classes with several options, so if you wanted to avoid taking it, you had multiple other choices. Yet, even being late every day, she showed up and did the work.

Maybe not to the best of her abilities, but she still did it.

There were a few things to note about Bada. She was captain of the school's basketball team and had a distasting reputation. The campus player and heartbreaker. It felt as though, every week, there was new drama surrounding a girl whose heart got broken by the tall student, and it always made you want to roll your eyes every single time. Never understanding why these girls chased and chased, even when knowing their situationships wouldn't be the way it was from their fantasies.

Nearing the end of the class, everyone was getting ready to leave, but the Professor stopped anyone from going further. "Before you leave, I want to discuss the upcoming midterm project."

She pulls up the presentation on the board and explains, "This project requires you to make an updated website for the school. The requirements will be posted online by the end of the day, and I will assign you a partner for this. The highest grade will have their website be used as the new official website for our school. This will be due a month from now."

Everyone becomes surprised and happy at the prize for their upcoming trials. Your professor begins to list the names, and she gets to you, "Baek Y/n... and Bada Lee." Your heart sank instantly at those words.

You grumble with your head down. Out of all the people in the class, you got stuck with the one who'd rather mess with a girl at any chance she had. 

Bada sits in her seat, brows furrowed. Who the fuck was Baek Y/n?

Bada knew almost everyone, but she'd never heard of that name. That's when the Professor lets everyone go, and she sees a girl walk up to the teacher. You wore the gigantic hoodie, and Bada couldn't see your face, but with all the gestures you gave your teacher, you seemed like you weren't pleased about something. When she hears you huff in annoyance, and your eyes meet hers while leaving, she sees anger bubbling behind them. 

Bada gets up, confused, and heads over to the teacher. "Professor Min, who was that?"

"That was your partner Baek Y/n. You've heard of the top student before, right?" Her eyes double at the older man's words, and her face becomes extremely happy. She would undoubtedly be using this to her advantage.

"Now, don't think of trying to get the girl to do all the work, Bada. I'm allowing you to bring up your grade with this project." She nods furiously before heading out to tell her friends the news.

She sees them over at their school's common room, and her friends, Aiki, Noze, Lee Jung, and Emma, give her weird looks like Bada grew three heads. "Now, why is she cheesing now?" Aiki asks, and the taller girl replies with a smack to her arm.

"You guys won't believe who my partner is for my computer science project."

The four girls looked at each other and began naming several popular girls. Bada rolls her eyes at her friend's antics. "Well, you wanna tell us? We named like half the girls already." Noze says.

"Baek Y/n."

...

"Baek, who now?" Lee Jung looks at her in amusement, but your title shocks them, "Top Student." Their eyes grow wide. The group looked around the room to see if they could find you. "Her name is Baek Y/n?" Emma confirms, "She's in my class, so I'm pretty sure that's her name."

"Well, if you don't ace that project, she must hate you." Lee Jung jokes, making Bada think, "Truth be told, she didn't seem too happy about being my partner either."

"We wouldn't be happy either." "Can't blame her."

They kid around, but Aiki tells the girl, "You better stay on her good side. I'm sure if you don't do the work, she'll find a way to ensure you don't have a shared grade." "True, she's always been partnered with smarter kids, so she's never had an issue, but knowing you? You’re gonna need to play nice girl this time, Bada."

Bada scoffs at Emma's words, "She'll do the work by herself whether she likes it or not. Besides, I'm on everyone's good side." She shows a cocky grin, but Emma and Lee Jung specifically can't help but doubt her. "I don't know about this one. Doesn't seem like an easy girl to get through."

"Nah, have some faith in our girl," Noze says, patting Bada's hip. "Wanna bet on it?" Bada says, with pure confidence backing her up. "I get her to fall for me, and you owe me a month of doing all my assignments." Lee Jung smirks at the girl, "Deal."

"So when are you gonna start?" Noze asks as she eats her chips. "Not sure. Definitely not tonight, though. I'm seeing Redy after practice." All her friends roll their eyes at the girl's name, finding her ignorance ever so bothersome.

The next morning, you find yourself in the same spot as usual and have begun the project already. Bada finds herself looking for you on campus and figures, where do all nerds hang out? 

The library.

She makes her way over, and as she enters, she automatically finds you in the corner of the large hall. "Hey there, partner," She greets, and you look at her dead in the eyes, "What are you doing here?" Your tone ached in annoyance.

"Come on, don't be like that. I want actually to try on this project."

"Fine. Let me ask you this first. Why are you even in computer science?" You were straightforward, your serious demeanor never fading. Bada is surprised by your daring question but never trembles, "I just thought it would be interesting." An irked scoff is heard from behind your mask, "Yeah, right," was said with an eye roll. Well, this is gonna be harder than she thought.

"I'm being serious. I wanna earn the grade as well." She whines slightly, and your eyes cry disgust. "Give me your number, and we can work on the project at my house after basketball practice." You grumble and slouch in your chair, and Bada, unconsciously,  finds the position adorable as your oversized hoodie collapses on your body, "Sure," is all you mumble, not wanting any more trouble than there already was.

Bada grins as you write your information down on a purple post-it note and shows her excitement when you hand it over to her. You sat there as she left the library, wondering what she had planned for you. It wasn't like Bada to talk to nobodies to "do work." Yet the sooner you had this project done, the better you took her words with a grain of salt, hoping she was being at least a little truthful with her words.

You weren’t one to trust many people’s words, particularly from individuals like Bada, but you knew it had to be done for the sake of your grade. A hefty sigh leaves your body, and you try to go about your day without going too deep into it. During your last period, you feel your phone buzz and read an unexpected message.

Bada Meet me after practice at 5 PM at the gym. I’ll give you a ride so we can work on the project.

The recurring disdain takes over your face again as you read. You hate that you even had contact with the girl, so you just leave her on read as you remind yourself about the meeting. You would just have to wait for her, deciding to go to the school's garden as you let time pass. On the other end of campus, Bada stares at her phone in dismay, “Did she just leave me on read?” She mumbles to herself, and her fellow co-captain hears the uncommon words from the latter’s mouth. “Someone leaving the queen Bada on read? You don’t hear that every day,” Haechi tells the girl, and Bada sneers at the comment. “She’s just playing hard to get for now. Trust, she’ll fall for me by the end of the week.”

“Who is it anyways?” Haechi questions. “Baek Y/n,” she simply states, and the other’s eyes widen. “Like top student Baek Y/n?” Bada looks at her in confusion, “You know her?”

The latter shrugs, “We went to the same high school. She’s a sweet girl,” she adds, and Bada’s curiosity grows. “Sweet? Do you even know what she looks like?” “Nope, but if you care about your grades, she’ll notice and help you, even if you're struggling.” 

Haechi was one of the few popular students in university who focused on her grades, so her statement wasn’t so out of the blue. “Know anything else about her?” Haechi briefly considers the inquiry, “She really likes energy drinks, from what I remember. She always drank the blue Monster cans.” But there was a slight hesitation in the co-captin’s voice.

“I know how you are, Bada, so I’m aware I can’t stop you from your plans, but try not to do too much damage to the girl. She’s too precious to be broken by someone like you,” Haechi tells her, and despite the brutal words, Bada doesn’t take it to heart, almost shoving it out of her mind.

“Don’t worry. I won’t.”

The practice continues for hours before Bada notices your small figure sitting on the bleachers, waiting for the little time left. She jogs her way over to you with a bashful smile, “Hey, let me just change, and we can head out.” You just nod, wanting to get out fast, but Haechi’s familiar face has your eyes smiling. “Y/n-nie! Long time no see,” she opens her arms, and you gladly hop down to hug her. Bada watched the interaction, not knowing how to react to this side of you. You looked overjoyed to see the girl, and she may not be able to see your face, but the new energy made her feel a sense of loss.

She didn’t understand why you favored Haechi but not her. They were both tall, popular basketball team captains and had similar recognition in school. The only thing Haechi had over Bada was her straight A’s in classes. Was that the thing that would get you to like her? Bada grumbled at the concept. She wasn’t failing or anything, or else she couldn’t play on the team, but ALL her grades were not close to par with Haechi’s, not even a little bit. When her attention returns to the two of you, she sees you handing a new water bottle to Heachi, who thanks you. “You two seem close,” she tells them, and her co-captain looks at you almost with cherishing eyes. “Y/n’s the best man. Helped me a lot throughout high school,” you wave your hands in denial. “Heachi, you did your best in high school with or without my help. You’re hard-working,” your voice appears in a softer tone. Bada wanted to roll her eyes hard, but she left you two to change.

Bada wasn’t jealous, but maybe being narked was the better way to express her feelings. The girl was the type of person to feel better and superior to everyone else, so the fact that Haechi was already on your good side had her deep in her cycling thoughts. She needed to work hard to get this version of you, and not just with the project.

When she finishes, she tells you to go with her, and you hug Haechi before leaving the court and going to the parking lot with Bada. As she drove, she tried to make some conversation. “You started the project, right?” “Yeah.”

“You might have to teach me a few things so I can actually help.” “Sure.”

“You like computer science?” “Yup.”

That. That was the substance you gave Bada after every question. It made her want to jump out of the moving car, her ego bruised by your one-word replies. She stops trying after 10 minutes, letting the silence overwhelm you two, and you couldn’t have been any happier with the lack of sound. The car pulls up to this large mansion, and you try to hide your awe. This house was huge. Probably being able to hold the capacity of 200 students. “Come on in,” she invites with the large open door. 

When you entered, your eyes marveled at the marble architecture, the classical aesthetic being the prominent feature of the house. Bada then leads you to the living room, where you sit timidly on her couch. “Do you want anything to drink?” She asks you as your eyes still wander the house. “Um, I’m ok.”

“Well, let me just change before we start,” you nod, taking out your laptop and notebook, trying to get a bit comfortable for your peace of mind. You pull up the empty website domain with only your school's colors and a sleek banner that takes up a decent amount of the screen. After 10 minutes, Bada returns with gray basketball shorts and a tight wife beater as her top. Your eyes go up and down her figure before focusing on the monitor.

You were honest, and as much as you didn’t understand Bada’s playgirl mentality, you did understand her appeal to the female population in school. Her tall figure, the varieties of colors she’d use on her long hair that cascaded all the way down to her waist, and the hats she wore to hold a sense of mystery were the perfect formula for the way to a girl’s heart.

“So what should I do?” Bada says, sitting beside you, which had you scoot in the opposite direction. “We can split the parts. Professor Min already put up the criteria for the website. I can do the harder stuff like navigation, school history, subjects, majors, and minors.” You tell her as you view the recent handout your professor had put up. “That’s too much, no? All I’d have left is the decorating, department information, and help desk information. Why don’t I help you with the major and minors?” You look at her with bewildered eyes, “You sure? A lot of coding and linking goes into that?” The taller one nods confidently, “You just have to teach me, and I’m sure I’ll be able to do it.” You nod with some hesitation.

“How about we start brainstorming the website's theme, and we can start with the project next week?”

“Sure, but why next week? My practices always end at 5-6 PM, so we should have time.” You shake your head, “it’s not because of you. I'm just gonna be busy with the school council this week.” And Bada looks at you in surprise, “Your part of the school council?”

“Yeah, but I’m just the secretary. Since the sports events are around the corner, I have to oversee everybody and their work,” you explain. Bada feels the admiration brewing inside her. She was aware of your hardworking nature, well, everyone was. You were the top student for a reason, but this put you on a different playing field. On top of your multiple studies, you did your due diligence as a prominent figure on their school council.

“Well, why aren’t you the president?” You scoffed, following a pity laugh, “Bada, I can’t lead anyone to save my life.” She stares at you, not understanding your point, and you take notice. “I might be smart, but that doesn’t mean I have leadership skills.”

“Maybe I can help you,” the tall girl shrugs. She thought she was a good captain for her team, so with that credit, she could give you pointers. “It’s fine. I like my position. I get to help everyone.” The two of you let the time pass as you continued to work on the project before ending the night.

The next few days, you had a lot on your plate. You were running around the school, ensuring all the projects and events were being set up properly, writing reports, and then reporting to the president and vice president about overseeing.

During this time, Bada rarely saw you in class, and she thought about how busy you’d be. You weren’t lying, huh.

But on a Thursday afternoon, you watched the gym setup and saw Bada’s little group chilling on the bleachers. Another student, Doyoung, walks in with papers stacked in his hands. It was all the papers you needed to sign and read through, but a basketball flew in his direction before he could reach you. His head throbs as he drops the papers, and you see Bada’s groupies laughing as Bada yells, “Sorry, Do-ah, the ball slipped out my hands,” she says as she collects the ball and returns to the bleachers. You ran over to the boy, helping him get the papers and helping him up. “Doyoung? Are you okay?” You help the boy up, and he stares at you, dizziness coating his face. You glare at Bada, who catches a glimpse of your raging eyes, and she realizes her fuck up in an instant.

“Come on, let me take you to the nurse,” you say as you grab his arm, wrapping it around your shoulders. “Shit,” Bada says as she watches the two of you leave, you having the stacks of heavy paper sticking out of your bag. “Looks like your timing is off this time,” Noze teases, and Bada thinks she has to make it up to you. She ran out of the gym, trying to catch up to you. She found you settling Doyoung on the nurse's bench as you explained what happened, and to avoid punishment, she waited for you to leave the office before she could talk to you.

Walking out, you make eye contact with the basketball player and scoff at the sight. You tried to walk past her, but she stopped you, pulling your arm, “Y/n, wait.” You rip your arm away, feeling grossed out by her touch. “Did you feel cool?” You bluntly ask, and Bada is taken aback at your tone. “No, that’s not it-”

“Then what is it, Bada? It doesn’t take much to be nice, but it sure does take a lot of energy to be as rude as you.” The disappointment felt like knives to Bada’s heart. It felt like the same judgment she got from her parents, and now you were saying it to her? It made her want to suffocate six feet under. “I just wanted to be funny. I didn’t mean to hurt him. I’m sorry,” she mumbles as her head hangs low. “That apology shouldn’t be for me, asshole. Apologize to Doyoung,” you tell her, leaving her where she stands as you are still much to do. “Doyoung-ah, just text me later when you get home,” the younger boy nods, and you return to your busy day.

“Dude, I apologized to Doyoung yesterday, and she still hasn’t texted me anything about the project,” Bada tells her friends as she paced back and forth. “I don’t see what the big deal is,” Aiki says, and Bada looks at her in distress. “It’s a big deal 'cause I need that A to play in that prelims.”

“Maybe give her something to make it up to her?” Lee Jung suggests that Bada’s eyes grow at her words, remembering Haechi’s words. “The blue Monster,” she gasps, and her friends look at her weirdly as she runs off campus. Bada went to the convenience store, buying a can of Monster energy drink, some cookies, and an egg sandwich. It was early morning, so she knew she’d find you in the library at your usual spot.

Instead of being on your laptop this time, your eyes never left the papers you read and signed. Not even noticing her presence, Bada drops the bag lightly on the desk and pushes it in your direction. You look up, see the girl’s sorry face, and check the inside of the bag. “What’s this?”

“My apology to you for being a dick. I also apologized to Doyoung yesterday, so I’m in the clear.” You roll your eyes and sigh heavily, “Why are you like this, Bada?” Now she was confused, “What do you mean?”

“You're capable of being nice to people like me, so why can’t you do it to others?” Because other people won't help my grade, Bada thought. “I’m not sure,” Bada acts, trying to look ashamed. “But I know I’ll try my best to change,” she says, that confident smile taking place on her face again. 

So, during the next few weeks, you worked with Bada. She did her best to show you the better version of herself. Yes, she was acting initially, but as time passed, she got comfortable with the routines. She attended classes earlier, paid attention, participated, and even studied. The week after the altercation, Bada had asked you to tutor her in certain subjects, and you gladly accepted, liking the direction of her change.

So, the two of you sat in her home on a Friday afternoon after school, and you were working on your chemistry assignments. You had become comfortable in the setting after working at her home a few times. “Y/n-ah, help me with this long-ass formula. It's confusing.” You giggle at the pout on her lips and check the screen. “The prefix is hepta- and check out the periodic table for the names.” You point to the table of chemical symbols, and Bada begins to understand the list of prefixes on the coffee table.

You continued your work and studied the current topic you guys were on. Bada looked at you, wondering, “I hope this doesn't make you uncomfortable, but why do you always wear a mask?” You pause, not expecting the surprise question. “It just makes school go by faster. Drama-free too,” you express, and Bada rolls her eyes. “But it’s just you and I here.”

“Doesn’t change the fact that it makes my life easy,” you state. “Look, tomorrow, when you come over for the project, come without the mask, please?” You look at her in confusion, wondering why she was pressing on so much. But seeing her giving you puppy eyes, you reluctantly agreed, “Fine.”

“Great! Now help me with this question, please?” You laugh at her struggle.

The next day, you woke up to prepare for the long day. You took a shower, did your everyday skincare, and ensured you looked presentable. You were much more alert about your looks when you didn't wear the mask. You wanted to feel confident and ensured you did when applying the lip oil and putting your hair in a high ponytail.

You took an Uber to Bada’s place and rang the doorbell. When Bada opens the door, she takes in your appearance. You were out of your uniform for once, and the hairstyle displayed your small face clearly. Bada looks at you fondly, not expecting such a pretty girl to hide behind the mask daily. Even with the glasses on, your eyes looked large, and your heart-shaped lips colored bright pink. The tall girl couldn’t pull her eyes away from your lips. They looked too juicy not to kiss.

“Are you gonna let me in, or should I just stay out here?” Bada shakes her thoughts away and moves to the side. “So you were hiding this the entire time?” She asks as she pats your head, and you swat her hand away. “You practically begged for this.”

“And I’m not complaining,” She continues, staring at you, “go to school like this man.” “Okay, it was one thing asking me to come to your house like this, but school? Never happening.” You tell her, settling your bag down on the couch. “Wait, we should work in my room today. My parents are gonna be home today.” 

She leads you into her room, the cool gray walls blinding your eyes. You observe your surroundings, surprised to see the clean room. She puts your bag on the office chair and lets you sit on her bed. You began to talk about what you’ve done on the project, but as you talked, Bada wasn’t even concerned about your words, focusing on your body more. Your outfit made Bada want to have you moaning underneath her, chest rising up and down as you begged for more.

“Bada?” You check on her worryingly. “Yes?” She whispers, still not staring at your face. “Have you done the majors and minors?” “I finished the majors, but I’m still working on the minors,” she tells you, clearly still entranced. “Can you show me?”

“Oh, um, yeah,” She shakes her head and takes her laptop out, showing the work she had completed, and you were visibly pleased with the progress. “This is actually really good. Nice job,” your validation had her heart swelling as your grin held a tint of pride. “Maybe you can finish up the minors today? Just so your work goes by faster.” She nods and checks out all the work you’ve done as well. “You finished all of these? That fast?” She stares at the screen, astonished by the amount of stuff you did the past two weeks. “Anything that needs to be done on a computer, I can do in a quick flash,” you joke, but it holds some sincerity. “I’m trying to be like you, girl,” She comments, and you laugh.

“Let’s do this so we don’t have much left to do next week.” With those words, the two of you worked the entire day. By the next time you checked the time, you realized the hours passed quickly. “Damn, it’s already 4 PM?” This also makes Bada check her phone, “Oh, your right. You want something to eat?” “I wouldn’t mind that actually.”

The two of you enter her kitchen, and Bada heated up some leftover Chinese food she had left in the fridge. Once you guys were eating, Bada tried to get to know you more, finding your presence comforting. “So, Y/n, why do you work so hard in school?” Your mind malfunctions at the question, unsure if you should be honest with the girl. “Um~,” you start, slowly picking at your food. “It’s mainly for my mom. My dad left us for his other family when I was five, and she raised me all by herself. This is the only way to give her a good life after everything she has gone through.” Your voice said with a hint of sadness, and Bada watched your pretty face fall. You wiped away the slight tears that formed. “You’re a good person, Y/n. Never forget that,” She tells you, and you find your heart racing at the words. Bada never had this effect on you, but her words of encouragement made your day.

She was about to continue the conversation, but another tall, more mature woman walked in the room, eyes looking cautiously at the sight of you. “Bada,” she called your partner's name, and you look surprised at Bada’s figure. She straightened herself up, fixing her appearance slightly. “Mother.”

“Who is this?” The older woman’s hand points over in your direction, and before Bada can answer, you decide to try and please the stern woman. “My name is Baek Y/n mam. I’m Bada’s partner for our computer science project. It’s nice to meet you.” You bow at the woman, and her eyebrows raise at your politeness. “Good manners, proper style, pretty face, excellent speaker,” her mom states, as her gaze moves around your body. “You should be more like this, Bada.”

“Mom, not in front of her, please,” Bada’s voice goes small, and you regret speaking up. “What? It’s true. Instead of basketball, you should be a model student. I should thank your teacher for partnering you up with this young woman.”

“I don’t know how we failed to raise you. This is how you should’ve turned out,” The older woman goes to your side, using her two hands to present you as if you were a presentation. Bada’s feelings were in a whirlwind. She wasn’t sure if she could be mad at you, her mom, or just the world. Her mom wasn’t even wrong. You were perfect in every way, and she was the disappointment. Two different worlds were crossing paths, and she was beginning to wish she was partnered with another individual instead of you.

Your eyes grow at her mother’s harsh words, and you shake your head, moving away from the woman. She wasn’t even aware of Bada’s new changes and efforts the last few days, but she belittled her daughter.  “Madam, with all due respect-”

“Y/n. Don’t,” The tall girl tells you, with a stern voice, her breathing going shaky. “You right, mother. I’ll do better,” Bada says, head hanging low as she walks past the two of you. “What a dramatic girl,” You hear her mom telling herself, and you do your best not to ridicule the woman. “I’ll go check up on her,” you bow and run up to Bada’s room, finding the door shut. When entering, her back was turned to you as she sat on the edge of her bed. You were about to reach out on her shoulder but halted when you heard the sniffles as they gradually grew heart-wrenching. You rush to Bada’s side without any reluctance, pulling her into a hug. The warmth engulfing Bada had her break down instantly, never having anyone hold her as you did. Your eyes teared up at the sounds of her hyperventilating, her grip on your shoulder becoming tighter. 

You then thought this was such a common occurrence for Bada. She put up this facade in school, wanting the attention of other women, and finally understood where it all stemmed from. Bada just wanted to feel loved and longed for, but with a household like this, it felt so hard to even ask for. She shouldn’t even have to ask. It was her mother, after all.

“Bada, you’re doing your best. Don’t let your mom’s words take that away from you.” You whisper as you rub her back, “If you ever want to talk, you can always talk to me.”

Bada begins to calm down at your words, the shakiness in her voice fading away. “Thank you, Y/n-ah.” She whispers, leaving her head on your shoulders. She wavers and asks, “Can you come to my game on Friday?” 

“Of course. I’ll be your personal cheerleader,” you quip, in a shot to make her feel better, which works when a cheesing smile forms on her face. “You’d only cheer for me?” “Maybe for Haechi as well,” you tease, and she hits your arm with a pout. “Okay, ouch. I’ll cheer for you only, damn. No need to get violent on me.” Bada laughs at your words. 

You try to stray from the topic, but you can’t help but ask, “Does she talk to you that way all the time?” Bada sighs, “Yeah, basically every time she’s home.” The lightbulb in your head flickers when she says, “My house may not be as extravagant as yours, but how about we work on the project on my house on Tuesday? I’ll send you my address, and you can come over after practice,” Bada’s eyes shined at the proposal. “I’d be honored.”

So the following Tuesday, you come home and relax on your bed before deciding to take a shower, feeling the stickiness of your sweat getting to you. You changed into a large baby pink shirt and some pajama shorts. Deciding to get a head start, you started your other assignments before Bada could get there. You worked on your easy English paper as you waited for the time to pass and heard the doorbell. Your eyes checked the time, and seeing 6 PM, you already knew who it was. You open the door to find Bada changed into gray sweatpants, an oversized hoodie, and one of her iconic hats covering her head. “Well, Miss Bada, welcome to my humble abode,” you say, welcoming her in. Bada’s eyes roam around, taking in the simplicity of the house, finding it shocking as she took a liking to it. “It feels… homey,” She mumbles, and you pat her shoulder. “I have more space in my room. Let’s work there.”

Bada’s eyes wander to your exposed thighs when going up the stairs. They looked so thick and plump. Bada, never realizing the build of your body, wanted to grip your thighs until they were turning red. Once you let her into your sacred space, Bada sees the tiny potted plants you kept, shelves full of books, your desk looking organized, and your twin-sized bed and pillows wrapped in a light purple set. 

“So I have the navigation and research of the school's history. I might leave that research for next week to work on other subjects today.” Bada nods, settling on your bed and opening her laptop, “What other assignments do you have to do?”

“I’m trying to finish my English paper and then study for next week’s Chemistry exam.” “CHEM EXAM?” Bada yells, startling you into a jump. “Yes, Bada, chemistry exam.” Bada rubs the back of her neck, “Can you help me study?” You smile at her, “Of course.” The two of you finished the topics you agreed to do today, and Bada explained that she only had the decorating left. “Y/n?” You hear a voice coming from downstairs, and you smile, “Yes, mom?”

“Did you and your friend eat yet?” Bada is bewildered at the foreign voice. Your mom knew she was here? “We haven’t yet!” You voice out as you put your hair up in a messy bun. “Come down and eat. I made some mandu and kimchi jiigae,” Bada’s eyes brightened at the names of the food. You giggle at her face and pull her into the kitchen with you. Bada makes eye contact with your mom, and the woman gasps. “Y/n, you didn’t tell me how beautiful your friend was.”

“Mom, stop~,” you whine as you give her a welcoming hug. Bada smiles at your relationship with your mom. It is the exact opposite of what she was used to. “Let me help you with setting up the table?” Your mom handed you the plates and utensils, “get comfortable, Bada. You’re about to eat some of the best food ever,” You tell the tall girl, trying to tease your mom, who laughs at your comment. “Come on, sweaty, sit down,” Your mom tells the basketball player as she puts both dishes at the center of your table.

“How was school you two?” Bada almost chokes on her first bite of food as your mom asks, not used to the motherly love. “Oh dear, here, have some water, darling,” Your mom pours a glass as you pat Bada’s back. “I’m sorry. Um, school was alright, thank you for asking,” Bada says, mumbling, and you smile pityingly at your mom. “Same mom, nothing new.”

“That’s good!” She finishes, letting you all eat in peace. “Have you rested this past week, Y/n?” You grin at your mom’s question, “You know I try and stop doing work an hour before I go to bed, Mom.” “That doesn’t count.”

You sigh, “Don’t worry. I plan to go to Bada’s game on Friday, so I’ll take a break then.” Your mom gets excited, “Really? Good luck with your game. I hope you guys win!” Your mom was joyful, even with what had happened in the past, which made her your hero. “I hope we win too, Ms. Baek,” Bada gives an appreciating smile. “Oh, please call me mom. Any friend of Y/n can call me Mom. She rarely has any friends, so,” Your mom whispers her ending statement, and you roll your eyes at her. “Can we not expose Y/n? Thanks,” You say, pointing to yourself. The two smile at your gesture, and Bada teases you, “She’s not wrong.”

“Look at what you started, Mom!” 

After you ate and studied with Bada, it was already 9 PM as you walked her out of your house. “You’re mom is the sweetest person on Earth,” Bada says, a sense of peace taking over her as she held the bag of food your mom had packed for her. “I know,” you giggle, knowing how your mom was. She accepted everyone and anyone as long as they treated you and her kindly.

“Thank you, Y/n. You’ve been helping me so much recently, and I don’t know how to pay you back,” she says, bringing you into the tightest hug. Your chest pounded, feeling a new overwhelming feeling of emotions. You knew that you and Bada had become closer in the past few weeks, but now you blushed at her touch, making you nervous.

There was no way you were starting to like her, right? You believed Bada was changing for the better. She had stopped flirting with so many girls, focused more on school, and acted as a more proper captain for her team. That’s what you thought, at least.

It was Thursday morning, before Bada’s game, and she was chilling on her hour break with the rest of her friends. “How has the project been going?” Emma asks with genuine interest. “It’s actually really good,” She simply states, and her friends stare at each other, unsure of how to go about her answer. “You remember our deal, right?” Lee Jung asks the taller, reminding her of her words two weeks ago. “Of course, I do,” Bada’s words felt like a harsh smack to the face. Her statement simmered in her mind like she was lying to herself.

Bada knew she was changing, and whether she would like to admit it or not, the thought scared her. It was because of you and only you. She was never meant to go this deep or even this far with your friendship. She couldn’t help herself, though. She shared tears with you, personal issues her friends didn’t even know about, and even bonding with your own mother. Feeling like a brand new person, Bada felt liberated and accomplished. Lately, she thought she could stick up to her parents, defending herself from their judgmental words. Last night, during their family dinner, Bada’s mother and father had some words for her again. “Bada, your grades better be good this semester, or you’ll be sent to military school.” Her father tells her in an eerie, monotone voice. Bada looks at them, sensing betrayal. “Do you guys even love me?” “What kind of question is that?” Her mom gazes at the girl, the cold look never leaving her gaze. “You haven’t even noticed the effort I’ve been putting in the last few days. Everything I do is never enough for the both of you.” Bada’s parents were taken aback at their daughter's sudden outburst. “Maybe if you were putting this much energy before, we wouldn’t have to say anything to you,” her father points out. “It’s because of that Y/n girl. I should thank her for you.” Bada grumbles at the authority, not wanting to hear the same crap repeatedly. “I understand I may not have been the best child. Trust me, I know. But maybe if you two showed even the tiniest bit of compassion and love, I wouldn’t have turned out this way.” That statement had both her parents shut up, letting her words brew in their minds.

“Bada,” she hears your voice, pulling her out of her thoughts, and everyone looks at you. Your eyes looked at them weirdly as they looked surprised at your presence. “Are you free on Sunday? I have things to do on Saturday, but we can probably finish the project by the end of this week.” She smiles at you, “No problem, we only have a little to go anyways. It shouldn’t take that long.” 

“Okay, I’ll see you tomorrow then,” you wave off, and Bada’s friends sat there, frozen at the exchange. “That might be the first time I’ve ever heard her voice,” Aiki says, hypnotized by your sweet voice. “I might have to snatch her up from you, Bada.” Noze kids, but Bada looks at her with stone-cold eyes, “No.”

Her friends sit there, unknowingly triggering something inside the tall girl. “It was just a joke, Bada, chill.” Lee Jung tells her as she shakes her head.

Emma looks at her, eyes growing at the assumption, “Are you falling for the girl?” Bada instantly looks at her like she’s crazy, “I just want to finish this project before you guys try anything,” she says, saving herself. 

Being oblivious to Bada’s words, you were excited about her game tomorrow. Your outfit was planned. You had snacks and a Gatorade for Bada to drink during her match. Since Tuesday night, Bada had been running on your mind constantly, and you weren’t sure how to handle your feelings. It was the first time you were hardcore crushing on someone, and this project made it challenging to contain your emotions. Her presence, attention, and beauty had you fixated. Since this was a first for you, you wanted to slow it down, trying to navigate it as you went.

So when game day finally came, you wore your hair up in a sleek ponytail and wore an extra jersey that Bada had given you with the number 22. You paired it with some simple Air Forces and ripped baggy jeans. Keep up the mysterious facade. You had your black mask covering the lower half of your face. Everyone stared at you as you sat on the court, wondering what your relationship was with their school’s basketball captain. You only kept your eyes down, not enjoying the amount of attention you were getting. 

Bada comes out from the locker room in full uniform and her eyes find your body, and an unconscious smile takes over her face. You looked adorable in the oversized jersey, and Bada just wanted to run up and hug you, but the game was starting soon, and the team had to warm up. 

You space out, but the loud blaring of the alarm shocks you out of it. As a book-believing student, you weren’t familiar with the rules or how the sport worked, but Bada made it worthwhile. Bada was noticeably agile and had a massive amount of stamina compared to everyone on the court. As you watched and cheered after her every shot, a blonde girl noticed your attire. A scowl and a look of disgust replaced her cheers. You weren’t even aware of her, focusing on the tall girl the entire time.

When half-time took place, you handed Bada the drink you had prepared for her. Smiling at your gesture, she thanked you and sipped as their coach spoke to them. 

The game started again, and as the timer was hitting the last few seconds, the score stood at 86-87, the score slim to the tee. Your heart beats anxiously as you watch Bada maneuver through the court. Haechi had passed the ball to her co-captain, and at 5 seconds, Bada had taken her chance at a three-pointer, and everyone held their breath as the ball spun around the rim. So when the ball fell in at the last second, all your school's students jumped and cheered at the epic finale. Bada looks over at you again, seeing your proud eyes on her. She blew a kiss at you, and you giggled as she celebrated with her team.

“Hey,” you hear her voice and turn around to see her sweaty figure, as her cheesing grin never leaves her face. “Wait for me at the parking lot? I’ll give you a ride home.” She offers, and you nod, pulling down your mask, not wanting to hide your thrilled face. “You were amazing out there, Bada.” The sincerity of your voice made Bada weak to her knees, and she felt giddy inside. “Thanks. I’ll see you in a bit, okay?” You nod, leaving the gym to the parking lot, where you wait, sitting on a bench. When Bada watches you go, she feels the butterflies in her stomach and stands there terrified. The girl started falling for you, the feelings piling up since your first study session. This couldn’t be happening. Bada’s pride wouldn’t let it happen, so she had to do something about it fast.

20 minutes had passed, and Bada still hadn’t come out. Worrying began to fill your mind. You kept checking your phone every minute, and the same anxiety overtook you. You decided to look for her, which honestly didn’t take long. You turned the corner of your school's building. You saw two figures holding each other tightly as they enthusiastically made out with each other.

Due to the darkness of the night, you squinted at the sight, but as it became clear, your heart broke into a million pieces, feeling like it was now dust. It was Bada and another girl. They pull away from each other, breathing heavily, and you hide behind the corner you turned from. “What about that other girl?” The unfamiliar voice asks. “What other girl?” “The girl wearing your jersey?” You swallowed lightly, your chest becoming heavy in your current position. “She’s no one, baby. Don’t worry about it. She was just a little bet.” You hear her, and you sob in silence, walking away from the detrimental scene that just occurred right in front of you.

You sit at the curb, staring at the stars, and laugh at yourself, “You’re so stupid, Y/n. So stupid,” you mumble, the tears getting harder to contain as Bada’s words repeat in your mind. Of course, you were just a bet for her. You were just another girl added to her collection, and it made you fall into despair. She cried to you and opened up, yet you were just another girl. You hit your head lightly in frustration with yourself. “Y/n?”

You jolt up from your spot, wiping your staining tears away, and turn around to find Haechi, who looks at you worried. “You okay?” You nod with a deep breath and huff, “Yeah, just feeling down right now. No biggy,” you try saving yourself, but the cracks in your voice tell the girl otherwise. “What are you still doing here-” She was about to ask but realized what may have happened since she saw Bada walking out with some blonde student from her Physics class. Haechi’s face was now painted sorrowfully, engulfing you in a hug. Her touch had triggered the waterworks again, and you were now crying again, breaths getting weaker when each tear dropped. “I’m so fucking stupid, Haechi. I hate her. I hate her so much,” the tall girl rubs your back, letting you release your anger and sadness. “Don’t say that Y/n-nie, you’re the smartest girl in school. Bada is just… ruthless.” Haechi states, some rage hiding under her voice. She had warned Bada, and the captain still went against her word. “I’m like every other girl, Haechi.”

The tall girl pulls away, shaking her head furiously, “No. No, you’re not. Come on, let me take you home.” You nod, too tired to say anything and sit in Haechi’s car, taking a nap on the way home as you wasted so much energy.

Bada was now trying to look for you everywhere, not noticing how long she took, keeping you waiting.

Bada Y/n? Where are you?

She waited for a response, but it never came. She began to worry but let the win of her game control her mind. An hour later, she was home, and you just got back to her.

Y/n-ah😚 My mom wanted me to go home early. Sorry.

Bada sighed in relief. At least you were safe at home. She was about to respond, but you texted her again.

Y/n-ah😚 About the project, don’t worry about it. I’m finishing it tonight and sending it to Professor Min tomorrow morning.

The tall girl furrows her brows.

Bada Are you okay?

Y/n-ah😚 Splendid.

Safe to say, Bada was terrified at your one-word answers. She felt back at square one, but little did she know she wasn’t even close. Not anymore.

The next time Bada saw you, you were both in school, and she approached you with your favorite drink. “My payment for last week,” she says, handing the drink to you, and you dismiss the interaction instantly. “I’m good,” you tell her and just walk away. Bada stares at you in confusion and is about to go after you but sees you standing at Haechi’s locker. From afar, her co-captain seemingly handed you a blue Monster can, and you hug the girl, thankfully. The interaction had Bada bothered and angry. You took Haechi’s drink but not hers?

She would talk to you about it one way or another, but she couldn’t find you the entire day. The fact that you didn’t have computer science today didn’t help the matter. So Bada decided to talk to you at your house. The rain began to pour, but it wasn’t stopping her from finding out what was wrong. She rang the bell at your gate, unsure if you were home, but when you opened the door, a glimmer of hope sparked until you spoke. “Go home, Bada.”

“What?” “I said go home,” your monotone voice made her want to hide. “Y/n, talk to me, please?” “Why should I?” She looks at you in shock. “What happened?”

“You wanna know so bad?” You walk up to the gate, anger fueling your eyes. Not even caring about the pouring weather. “Somehow, me being the smartest girl in school means nothing when it comes to you.”

Bada didn’t say a word, not knowing where this conversation was going. “Congrats, Bada, you made the top student in school look like the most mindless person in the world.” Bada’s eyes widen, “what do you mean-”

“Oh, don’t act stupid.” You groan and look at her with eyes of disgust. Bada sunk into the thought. She was back to square one. “I seriously don’t understand-” “You don’t understand sucking off another girl’s face while I waited for you in the parking lot? God, when I thought there was progress in your thought process these past few weeks, but I guess I was wrong.”

That’s what froze Bada, her heart dropping at the statement. You saw and heard everything. Bada only wanted to beg for forgiveness right then and there, but she knew she had no right to. It's not like you were gonna accept it anyway. “Y/n I-”

“Just save it, Bada. You don’t have to explain yourself. I get it. I’m just another girl, right? Or what was it you told blondie? A bet?” Bada had no words to save herself, wanting the ground to swallow her whole in shame. “Forget about it, Bada, forget we were ever friends.” You left the conversation at that, slamming the front door behind you. That’s when you broke down. The crying just couldn’t stop, kneeling on the floor of your home as the dreadful silence filled your ears as you heard the heavy rain and thunder pouring outside the windows. For once, you hated the silence. 

The next day, Bada wanted to try and apologize again. She looked and looked, not finding you anywhere on campus. She then looks for her second-best bet and sees her standing with her friends. “Haechi!” Bada runs up to the girl as she waves her friends off. Her co-captains eyes held frustration, and it told Bada she also knew the situation. “Do you know where Y/n is?” “Why? So you can break her even more?” Bada knew to expect this, but she wasn’t expecting to be cornered by the girl who shoved her into the lockers.

“I fucking told you, Bada, but what Bada wants, Bada gets, right?” Haechi’s pointer finger drilled into her chest, and the captain winced in pain. “I-I wanna make it right.” “Too fucking late.”

Bada’s body ignores the pain at her words, “What do you mean?” Haechi looks at the girl whose eyes began to water slightly. “She’s leaving for the States. The school gave her an internship for 5 months.” Bada’s world crumbles, and she takes out her phone, sending you multiple messages.

Bada Y/n, I’m sorry. Please don’t go. It was a mistake. I was stupid. I was falling for you, and I was scared. Y/n?

Bada’s tears were uncontrollable as they fell, reading how her messages weren’t sending. “Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.” Bada was now beating herself up in the middle of the hallway. She was hitting her head hard with her fist, pulling her hair harshly, and everyone who saw looked at her in worry. Haechi was shocked at the girl’s actions, seeing how bad she genuinely felt. She did her best to pull Bada’s arms away, and Bada slid down to the floor, blubbering as Haechi did her best to stop the girl from hurting herself. “I’m so fucking stupid, Haechi.” Her teammate didn’t know how to respond, just holding Bada’s arms down as she cried her pain away.

A/n: SHIT IS INTESNE RN DAM.

Tag list: @chipswsauce @nimixe @yooqui @eeeetaetterswife @efyyylee @froufrousnowman @amararosesblog

[noeggets]

felt like drawing my kids, sorta AU cause i drew them kinda different half my designs, i aged up the navi's sorta

information about them bc it's long and self indulgent from me talking to my friend

Enzan

Age: 11 (but turns 12 before Lan does making him slightly older and he will use this in a argument if he wants to)

I HC him french because of his english name they just moved to Dentech city at some point

Protoman

Age: in his 40's. 2 or 3 years younger then Enzan's father.

Backstory He was Enzan's mom's Navi (her name is Glace bc i watched the dub but apparently this website believes Enzan's english translated name is a swear word but his name on his wiki means Hot Blaze or something like that but it's french so his mom is french that is the HC i will stand on) i diagress, when she passed he was given to Enzan

other information: His Navi model was discontinued because it was buggy and glitchy, nobody could fix it (nobody wanted to try) so they just stop using whatever AI brain chip he has to make Navi's like him. He dislikes Enzan's father because he feels like he should have never got his original netop pregnant because she was sickly and giving birth is what ended her life he believes because she was ill he whole heartedly believes that what it was however the exchange was Enzan and he loves that child as his own, very rough relationship with Enzan's father

Lan

Age: 11

other information: His Mom and Dad are divorced because Yuichiro loves his work more then anything excluding Lan and Megaman he loves his kids. they are still friends and love Lan equally. Lan lives with his mom Megaman used to live with their dad in his testing phase but he's in Lan's PET so he lives with Lan and his Mom now. his original home is at Yuichiro lab, the PET and Lan's Computer is his new home he is able to jump to whichever he decides. His dad is Netopian/American

Megaman

Age: age unknown youth model - He hasn't existed that long but at the same time he was created to be around Lan's age

Backstory

created from the dna of deceased twin of lan hub. technically he is a twin but he isn't Hub he is a copy created with the DNA. He is not Hub tho.

other information: he doesn't understand social cues and tends to speak his mind, he is wiser then Lan but not knowledgeable in subjects people/Navi's his age should know about. He can solve complex problems and understand wrong from right but when it starts becoming being a world experience issue he can't really help you

Maylu

Age: 11 (older then Lan younger then Enzan, taller then Lan brags about it sometimes)

other information: American/Netopian, has whatever an american accent would be called in this world, she had a hard to learning Japanese but can speak it fluidly, cannot write it that well. Very chill at the same time the loudest person in the room if bothered. Likes this kid name Zackery in their school cough Zero COUGH he has a whole story that he is Willy's son who Willy turned into a Navi but nobody knows it yet

Roll

Age: youth model around 16 or 18

Backstory

Normal custom edited Navi from base youth model in stores no interesting background

other information: adapted the traits of being kinda selfish and needy. It's hard for her to stand not having her way, very girly Maylu did not make her this way she just developed a personality outside of her environment because she does not act anything like Maylu this is not a bad thing but it isn't a good thing either lol we love roll still

[vrabbiit]

Me, bc I'd like to kiss the bnnuy: MXES/Reader I Beg Of You (sfw/nsfw, i don't even care just give me bnnuy boy)

teeheeeeeeeeee does this count as being a monster-lover, a robot-lover or a furry?

Being a computer program, you did not remotely expect the rabbit-like figure that represented the M.X.E.S program to be sentient. Like, at all. When you first spotted it lurking as you looked at a world unlike anything you'd experienced before, you'd thought "Oh my god that's fucking terrifying, who programmed it?" And then, a little later, "Why is it kinda......"

Despite everything, though, MXES didn't really do much except, inexplicably, hang around and watch you. You weren't trying to break down the security protocols, so there was no need for it to even show itself to you, and yet... it did. At first in the distance, but slowly inching its way closer over time until you couldn't access the AR world without feeling its presence hovering over you (which, almost embarrassingly, you far from minded.)

One day, you started speaking to it. It didn't respond, except for some strange, almost whisper-like static, but you could talk for the both of you. And you did. It's weird - even though it was nothing more than a security AI, it seemed to respond to your words. That's when you fully acknowledged its sentience.

For a while, you weren't sure you could even touch it - you had no idea how the AR World worked, and if it didn't exist in the real world, would your hand just go through it? The answer, surprisingly, was no; it was cold and touching it felt like putting your hand on an old, staticky TV, but as long as you were connected, it was solid.

It was strange, developing a crush on a being who didn't speak outside of garbled digital noises and who initially scared the ever-loving shit out of you, but also something you found very typical of yourself. You knew it could understand you and had some level of feeling, and it was starting to be able to communicate very effectively with you through actions, so it was just a harmless crush, right? It's not like it felt the same, right?

Spoiler: It absolutely did. MXES wasn't quite sure what it was feeling towards you, other than ambivalence that you weren't trying to prevent it from doing its job, but it slowly developed into a warmth, a kind of want that it didn't understand until you were chattering away, talking about how your friend had told you about their date the night before and all the things their partner did for them, and it thought - I want to do that with you. Now, the dilemma was just in how to show you that.

[goldfades]

Hamster nonnie on the computer get ready. This is a big heavy so buckle up... plz :b

Or I'm soaking your socks in pickle juice, your favorite fucking socks at that >:b.

Touching on a topic I've mentioned in the past; about how The girls are lucky the manager is the way she is.

People who have been on the team with the manager years before, make it a point to tell the freshman to "Be grateful that she's as understanding and empathetic as she is, don't take it for granted." I see the manger as someone who was doing summer training before she officially became the manger, and had some situations to deal with then and very quickly showed that she may be remorseful, but she will not put up with your shit.

I've talked about how the manager want's to be petty soooo fucking bad when the girls hurt her, or piss her off, or whatever; but she can't. She understands. Going back to the manager being an academic weapon I heavily suspect that due to the broken family she came from, she's taken Psychology classes to try and understand why. How does the brain work, why did her dad leave, why is her mom barely present.

She wanted answers so she threw herself into Psychology thinking that that was going to give her what she wanted, but quickly she realized the harsh reality of the actions of the people around her. It wasn't some chemical deficiency, It wasn't an Illness, people just sometimes are like that. This realization really took a tole on her, I feel like us as people have that realizations sometimes that people are just bad people regardless of what mentality they have. There was no excuse.

During this time she also got familiar with co existence within cause and effect:

Yes she is resilient, and she needs a break.

Yes she was sure, and things change.

Yes she forgives that person, and that does not mean acsess.

Yes others have it worse, and your pain is still valid.

Yes she gave it her all, and she needs to back up.

Yes her parent's did all they could, and their choices wounded her.

Yes she can understand the situation, your frustration, your emotions, and that does not mean that it was right to take it out on her.

And I feel like that ^ always sends the girls and even Geno into a loop. Of how understanding she it whilst also standing 10 toes down on that boundary that just because she understands, does not mean it was okay. Being stern yet caring, putting up a border for space because she needs it, but it's soft enough to touch when she's needed.

When any of the girls know they fucked up, while they may be hesitant, and sensing the aura the manger is giving them. They still feel comfortable stepping up and apologizing when they feel ready. She's build this empire of warmth and nurturing covered with fences full of thorns as a reminder of acceptance but stinging realizations.

There's that comfort but also that professional boarder that she also puts up, not to caring and kind to make it seems as though what happened was okay & they're back on good terms, but not cold and stoic enough to make it seem as through they've revived someone who is just their manager and a void of who used to be their friend.

-🐹(sorry not sorry for the angst nehhehhehhehheh)

oh my hod, you’ve done it again nonnie 😮‍💨😮‍💨 this is ABSOLUTE GOLD!!!!

she’s such a psych girly i’m so glad we agree on this because yes!!! she’s such a healthy communicator too bc she knows that if you keep it all in, it’ll blow up in your face HOWEVER she never pushes them to open up until they want to, cause she also knows that isn’t good either

I ALSO LOVE WE CAN GALK AB RHE FUNNIEST SHIT ONE SECOND AND THEN NOW WE’RE PSYCHO-ANALYZING HER ITS SO FUNNY😭😭😭😭😭😭

this entire ask is just chefs kiss 💋

[sentientstump]

I have a question about your team Canada animatic, how did you decided which clips you were gonna animate? Did any get cut from your original plans?

This is such an interesting question, although I forgot most of my train of thought when creating that animatic 😭😭

Let's try to rember something:

So i took almost every series they have made. I didn't get Ruins of the Mindcrackers 1 and 2 because i haven't watched it yet, Drobnovian Knights montage was kind of small so i think i skipped it, i don't remember clipping Captive Minecraft 4, + Starblight and Final Paradox didnt exist, didnt know about their Don't Starve playthrough (although even if i did i think I would've chosen not to think about it, bc its a different game)

So with the basis of 8? series i decided to get the audio somehow. And tbh i have found a much better way to get audio now but 2 years ago it was: get a recording app, watch the entire video and if a funny moment happens that seems feasible to animate then you go and tap the "record" button (back then it didnt have a "start now" option so you had to wait 5 or 3 seconds for the recording to start), wait for the good moment to stop it and then look for another clip to take. I don't actually know the numbers anymore, it was probably in my twitter somewhere, or maybe I'm misremembering things... 😭

i don't remember throwing any particular clips, although it might have happened at some points. I do remember the times when i had to look for an additional clip (for the inbetween quick lines)

man, that must've been tedious, what was i doing LOL

i might have been like: "oh, this clip seems very difficult to animate, I'll force through it" wow! what a good strategy! 🙆🏻

here's some other stats i did when finishing it! I'm so glad i did these, thank goodness. I tried to store the frame images in a computer storage, but every time i look inside it doesn't have anything... So all of them are lost. In ibisPaintX, in Alight Motion, in phone gallery too. These images is all i have now

hopefully this answered the question somewhat!👍🏼 if something is still kinda unexplained i can try to go into even more detail, although i do need direction LOL

[definitelynotshouting]

(Hunger au) I'm going into ecology and it's fascinating looking at your au's ecosystem, especially since this doesn't necessarily seem driven by natural selection and instead by just. The universe creating what it needs, with a purpose in mind. That's so different from our world that it's fascinating to think about the implications. Rather than existing to take advantage of and respond to resources and selective pressures, theyre basically creating said resources/pressures. The watchers are having to manually adapt to survive after a bottleneck effect, which to be fair even if there was natural selection they'd probably have to cuz adaptation takes a looong time in species with long reproductive cycles. Do they have a genome? Or are they just being arbiters of mutation themselves (by that i mean theres no genome so theyre changing their species themselves since theres nothing to mutate)? Do offspring inherit traits? What does this mean for natural selection (cuz like. If they survive differently depending on how their traits match up to the environment and selective pressures there is)? With the seekers gone are expected to have a population rebound barring any other selective pressures/fitness independent factors on their population? Their reproductive strategy seemingly aligns with the low pressure they're facing... I read a paper to understand this and it's really cool:

(From https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-42562-7)

They seem to be an r-selected species and invest a lot in their offspring, but they just naturally have low infant survival rates. This is the sort of species that does not do well in the long run so that adds urgency to their efforts to edit themselves.

All this to say that I'm rotating the concept of an ecological system that has one of ecology's core tenants (evolution) heavily altered/removed. Tis fascinating.

between you and chem anon im going to have a heart attack over sciency people looking at my silly au /lh

I really did want to go like vastly different from how our world works since this is such a video game setting-- it was really fun to noodle about what a universe made out of code instead of DNA would look like!!! and having the universe be quasi-sentient, affected by a form of evolution itself as well (thank you julien gough for the universe evolution theory that i have wholeheartedly adopted into my worldview).... idk its led to some very interesting worldbuilding for sure 😂😂😂

Watchers-- or any entity in this universe, actually-- dont really have a genome like we'd understand it. Instead, theyre made up of code and code blocks, which i guess would sorta mimic that to a certain degree, but its more tipped in favour of computer programming than biology. The whole au sorta just wholesale marries the two together, along with physics and chemistry (i am currently percolating on how crafting works in this au rn and my current idea involves the concept of the crafting table acting somewhat like a catalyst, which. okay dont take that as gospel yet i havent fully cooked on that one) etc etc etc.

But the Watchers did intentionally change their coding to help defend against the Seekers when they were being hunted into extinction!!! Watchers already had a natural affinity for deep coding, so while it took a lot of effort and caused a lot of damage to themselves, they managed to rapidly change their code structure (aka this universe's version of genetic makeup) to get better at, well. Watching. Seeing the Seekers coming far enough in advance to run before they got there became their primary defense against getting voraciously hunted, and by the end of it the Seekers starved out and went extinct bc they'd gotten so adept at avoiding them.

Offspring is interesting because in my mind at their base level (so genetically/code structurally speaking), Watchers are identical clones of each other. They reproduce asexually-- think uhhh mourning geckos and some species of aphids, which reproduce via parthenogenesis. So yes, in a sense they do inherit traits, but its in a direct line from the parent as a genetic copy. Their memory codes and surface code layers are what differentiate themselves from each other

Reading this chart is so interesting.... i'd say you're right in that Watchers would be considered an r-selected species!! I think if they werent like. Essentially made out of tissue paper thats constantly getting damaged and having to be repaired, they would be able to bounce back to the point of population rebound for sure. The problem with that though is there are only about 40 Watchers left-- thats how bad and out of control the situation got. And since they have such a long reproductive cycle, and such a high infant mortality rate, and their experiment with Grian went so wrong, AND the universe formed Listeners to replace them via direct competition (Watchers cant feed from Listener-infected Players!!), they are unfortunately headed right for extinction too.

Hopefully this makes a modicum of sense and isnt just me totally talking out of my ass wkdnjedjkejdke but i hope this answered most of your questions!!! Im really glad you like the direction ive taken this, its a lot of fun to conceptualize a world that works on different rules than our own :]

[sukisukidaysook]

Okay, I have thought of more pairings for you for the bingo game:

• Lanamia;

• Krisnix;

• Wrightworth;

• Solkat;

• Vrisrezi;

• Zosan.

I'm sorry if it's too much. If you don't want to do a bingo for all of these, it's fine.

I’m putting in depth thoughts under a readmore bc it’s gonna get LONG BABY!!!

LANAMIA:

OUGHHHH THEY WOUND ME!!!! Intellectually attracted. Lana fumbled Mia soooo badly and honestly I ship them as an OT3 including Diego <333 Lana had to become corrupt to save her sister while Mia fought corruption and died because of it… Lana the chief being called by Mia’s killer and informed through that (which I get was a translation error BUT MY GOD THE IMPLICATIONS!!!)… Imagine Godot trying to contact Lana to discuss Mia after he wakes up or them meeting in prison after TT…. UGH. Lanamia.

KRISNIX:

I’m fuckding crazy. They are toxic. They match each other’s freak. They pretended to be friends but they knew they were lying to each other (but what if those feelings got too real? What if it wasn’t an act? but you can’t let your guard down, no, not now, not after everything you’ve worked for). THEY SPIED ON EACH OTHER. for seven years. Kristoph made Phoenix more corrupt but Phoenix made Kristoph more human but they damaged each other and spiraled into madness. Kristoph ruined Phoenix’s like and Phoenix returned the favor. They are the same polar of a magnet, the same in every sense but always five steps away from each other, never able to get too close.

WRIGHTWORTH/NARUMITSU:

What is there to say that hasn’t already been said? I went through the pipeline. I hated Edgeworth and then instantly understood why the pairing is so popular. Childhood friends, to strangers, to enemies, to friends, to enemies again (one sided), to friends, and then lovers. They have long periods where they don’t talk or see each other and yet their bond only gets stronger each time. I don’t believe in soulmates and I hate the concept but if soulmates did exist, Narumitsu has that going.

SOLKAT:

Homestuck is fucked for separating them but at least they were put back together RECENTLY. They are so DOOMED in the main webcomic. They are best fucking friends and the closest each other has (outside, maybe, Sollux and Aradia). “kk dont u2e the computer explo2iion code iit wiill explode your computer” “FUCK YOU” and then the computer exploded. Sollux is Karkat’s IT guy (romantic). I think they could easily vacillate flushed and pitch and pale and. Yeah they are soo multi quadranted (with flush as the main). Goddd I miss them. When Sollux left it BROKE me. Davekat could never have what they have.

VRISREZI:

EVERYBODY GIVE IT UP FOR TOXIC DOOMED YURI!!!! WOOOO!!! They find each other in every universe. They are perfectly pitched (but also a little flushed). They have a POWERFUL rivalry like nobody else and are always evenly matched, bouncing one step ahead of each other. They act like they hate (platonic) each other at times but it’s sooo clear how much they care about each other. They would do anything to stop the other (cuz they are pitched rivals) but they would do anything FOR each other too. They make my head hurt and I mean this positively.

ZOSAN:

The fandom has them so wrong they are NOT CUTE YAOI they are MEAN and they FIGHT and that is their love language. They are a great example of Homestuck pitched. Sanji cooks Zoro’s favorite food because he has it memorized and Zoro eggs him on and threatens him but he’s eating the food and so clearly enjoying it and they keep up their bickering which escalates to a fight but they are fully in sync every step. They are a POWERFUL duo in fighting and they cover each other’s weaknesses FLAWLESSLY. They CARE about each other and their “love to hate” was clearly shown early on through Dorry and Broggy’s parallel, which is the same arc where this dynamic started. I don’t want them canon because I do like the friend dynamic the crew canonically has, but they are WONDERFUL in fanon.

[divinityiswasted]

A Tentative Timeline of DOS2

Ok Divinity peeps here is a tentative timeline for the events surrounding DOS2. Please read more for notes, annotations, and takeaways:

Annotations (bc it's too much text for ALT):

1218 AD:

Lucian Ascends. Saves and adopts an infant Damien. Alexandar is not yet born.

1233:

Great War Starts.

Sometime in 1233:

Great War Ends.

Elven Forest Destroyed by Deathfog.

Lucian Declared Dead.

First Godwoken Killed by Lone Wolves.

1234:

First Lucian's Day.

First Voidwoken appears.

1235:

Alexandar takes over the Divine Order.

1236:

First Sourcerers are detained to Fort Joy.

1242:

Seven prisoners survive a shipwreck and land at Fort Joy. (Start of DOS2)

1244:

Fallen Heroes is said to take place.

Notes from Chart:

It is unclear if the war against the Black Ring in 1233 is the Great War or the Chaos War. I refer to it as the Great War but the text of the game and the lorebook uses both interchangeably

Most points (save Lucian's ascension and Fallen Heroes date) are taken from DOS2 files, DLC, Wiki, and Mortismal Gaming (all linked below). You can take the Fallen Heroes date with a grain of salt (bc who knows when/if it'll come out.) but I wanted to include it's date to further the idea that the DOS2 journey has space to take as long as you the player wants. A 2 week sprint around the Rivellon is just as valid as the 2 years.

You can use the comic as a resource for events note. But it doesn't specify years you're free to add them wherever they make the most sense to you.

Lucian is confirmed "dead" sometime in 1233 before 1234. This is bc the first celebration of Lucian's day and hope for new Divine.

The Great War is separated bc there's nothing that states how long it was.

Notes:

I have a file that contains basically every text seen in dos2 if you need it I've linked it HERE. (You can open this file on notepad, wordpad, or any richtext editor (not Microsoft Word mine crashed ;w;). You could probably edit out the content id tags to make searching easier but those help me realize we're on a new line of text so i keep them.) I basically input every year from 1218 - 1242 AD to check and see if there's any info in regards to things happening that year. I combined my sources with two timelines I had seen from both the wiki (HERE) and Mortismal Gaming (HERE).

Sidenote, shoutout to the wiki which also has a written copy of a lot of the notes in game (HERE). While I recommend people do runs to better understand the origin characters (for example did you know in an origin run Ifan cannot say whatever pisses off Paladin Hardwin to say that he won't have his comrades sacrifice be shoved in his face) and what's going on in their heads, the wiki does a fantastic job of catching some things you might not see on your run. You can't screenshot everything (my computer is calling me a hypocrite i can hear them) and the wiki is a great resource.

Takeaways and what we can do with this info:

I set out with this timeline to figure out one thing. Originally, I wanted to know what reasonable age Ifan could be at the start of DOS2. I got a range of numbers that'd make sense for how I view his character and then was able to make headcanons for every other character based on that. For me tacking down Ifan's life gives me some ideas on when Sebille was taken, how old the Red Prince may be, and when did Beast get exiled. It doesn't help as much for Lohse (who I just think is the baby of the group) and Fane (listen if i just say he's over a millennia old would you all take it?). And in order to do that I needed to know some of the basic events happening in and around DOS2.

I the goal in making this timeline going over the general happening around DOS2's start is to help anyone with fleshing out character HCs and worldbuilding. It helps me when writing to know what things exist in a universe so I add on what I like or highlight parts of history. (I also bc I wanted to give the origin characters a zodiac shhhhh.)

One of the shortcomings of this is that this timeline has a lot of room to expand bc a lot of documents are very human focused/written. For example there's info in the comics that shows there's tension between dwarves and lizards that isn't dated but you could tack one down. I wish Larian had tacked down one event per race (for example: let's say in 1231 the dwarves begin to express concern due to expansions of the ancient Empire into dwarven land) but alas it didn't happen. I also wanted to avoid adding any of my own HCs because the divinity journey is your own and I would like to provide a general resources for those that might need it. If this helps others build their own timeline and world then I did my job. I'll make a separate post maybe one day on each of the characters and the timelines I make for them but that's a problem for future me.

Please lemme know if this helps at all if there's things I can expound upon.

[brb-on-a-quest]

University of Gallirey AU

(tagging @walkthruthewords 'cause you know what you did -sigh- that I've written 2k words instead of studying for my history test on Tuesday in one sitting and also @igotthisaccountunderduress bc dr who fanfic and you seemed interested the last time). Enjoy! Hopefully.

He swore he wasn't going to care. It was one assignment. It should not and did not require this much of him.

He pushed the ancient piece of technology that he'd carried around with him for the last century or so against the back shelf of the desk and turned to pace around the room. He'd forgotten he still had his Converse on, and they squeaked against the linoleum floor. He clenched his jaw as the noise grated his ears, chucking the ratty soles across the room.

It was then he realized that he cared very, very much about this assignment. Too much. If he didn’t ace it- The young time lord shuddered. That was a consequence he couldn’t bear to see the day of. He had to. No ifs, buts, or yets. 

The Doctor sat down on the chair, inching it close to the desk until the wood pressed against his chest- as if the tangible reminder would ground him to this assignment. Must keep typing, it doesn’t matter, you can’t edit a blank page-

He pulled the computer closer to him and stared at the almost empty page- he had written in the proper header. The Doctor. The Professor. The Class. The Date in the stupid lunarian formatting. Why does everything need some definite article when life is so- not. Somehow, the existence of the header mocked him and his frustration. He stood up and began his rounds around the small cubic space of a dorm. 

He began grumbling under his breath when someone opened the wooden door, prompting the student to swing around on his feet quickly.

“Sorry, didn’t mean to startle you.” His roommate said in that calm, chirpy tone they had as their antennas twitched rapidly. “You good, mate?” His foreign alien exchange roommate had started adopting his slang, which felt very endearing coming from his chirped accent. 

“You could bloody well knock next time!” The Doctor hissed behind gritted teeth and then immediately melted into a puddle of emotions. “No, please, I’m sorry-”

“No pain taken.” The oversized grasshopper chirped as it pushed the door closed behind him with a leg. “Are you alright?”

“I just need to do one more assignment, and then I will be the happiest time lord alive.” The Doctor muttered. 

“I… do not believe you. You keep saying that and yet fail to follow through.” It removed his glasses from his comically large compound eyes, the pupils immediately contracting in size. “What assignment is it this time?” 

“A reflection. About something in the last century that I wish I could change about my life.”

“That’s it?” 

“What do you mean that’s it?” The Doctor was close to shouting. “Do you know how hard it is to just bare your soul to someone you only know on an acquaintance-basis? I’m not ready for this level of commitment.” 

His roommate put his glasses back on and started removing his shoes from all four of his feet. “Hm. Have you tried sleeping on it?” He paused, one shoe hanging off an appendage. “When is the last time you-” his roommate anxiously turned to untranslatable chittering. “-rested. Yes. Rested, that’s the word.”

The doctor stared down at the floor. Panic and guilt flooded his mind with strong sensations. He tried to count how many times he saw the suns of Gallifrey rise and fall. He tried to remember the last time he saw the orange suns. It was-too long. What did grass feel like? He couldn’t remember. He’d been alive for nearly five hundred years, but his mind had forgotten the touch of grass under his toes. Where are your bloody priorities, Doctor?

The small room felt like a prison, and he needed to run. Do anything but stare at another screen for a while. 

“Be right back.” 

“Answer the question first.” The roommate stood between him and the door. “I care about you and I have been in and out of the room for the past two months and I don’t think you’ve slept once. So, tell me, doctor, when did you rest?”

The Doctor thought back across his checklist. What had he done recently? The packet of physics that had taken a month, the navigation history exam, time stream engineering, Astrobiology and physiology-

“I know I took a nap after the ethics of temporal manipulation paper- everything’s blurry after that.” He admitted. 

His roommate, a constant fidgeter, completely shut down. There was no clicking of joints or the slight fluttering of wings, edging of mandibles. “Doctor. The paper you did last semester? Over a year ago? That’s when you slept?” 

The Doctor felt betrayed. Who was he to tell him what to do? He hadn’t eaten a vegetable and was constantly partying with other Gallifreyans. He had no right to be emotionally attacked. “What does it matter to you?” 

“Most humanoid species of your astro-classification would be dead by now.” His roommate shuddered. “Go to bed, Doc.”

“No. I have too much to do. I’m just going to take a walk, and I’ll be right as rain.” The doctor grinned.

“I don’t want trauma grades, Doctor.” His roommate backed up against the door. “Please sleep. You look like you're going to rob an interstellar money house with the dark circles around your eyes.”

“You mean bank.” The doctor filled in helpful as he stepped up on his toes to do a full body stretch. “I look like I’m going to rob a bank.” His shoulders felt so much achier as he turned around to look at his reflection in a mirror propped up against his closet door. He looked like an unrecognizable meat suit of skin and bones. “Huh. Interesting. Really.” The instinct was to yawn as his jaw hung down for a minute. Must fight it. Stupid reflection. 500 more words. 

“I mean for you to go to sleep.” The roommate chittered. 

“No. Let me just drink some of the Red Bull-”

“NO!” the grasshopper dove in front of their university cooling unit. “Doctor, Go. To. Bed.”

“Why should I?” The doctor frowned. “Last I checked, you weren’t either one of my parental figures.” 

“Doctor, what’s my name?” The grasshopper said. “What are you seeing right now?”

“There’s you. You’re. My roommate - You’re a-” He sighed, pressing his lips together thoughtfully. “A grasshopper. I’m sorry, I don’t remember the proper term, it’s on the tip of my tongue and your name is.” His mind raced through file cabinets of all the names that he heard the most often. They lived together. He had seen him everyday, how could The Doctor forget?

Something stung his cheek. A hand. Not an antenna.

“I’m not a stupid bug.” When he opened his eyes, his roommate had turned into a time lord size. Ah, yes. The Doctor and The Butler. His roommate had chosen The Butler. Just like he had chosen The Doctor. “You’re hallucinating. Go to bed right now, or I will call the wellness center for you.” 

“You’re angry with me.” The Doctor sniffed. 

“Listen, you are going to be emotional because you have not slept in Gallifrey knows how long. You can take a nap, and then you will be fine.”

The doctor leaned his head on the Butler’s shoulder. “I’m sorry- I- I didn’t know I was so tired.”

“It’s ok.” The Butler patted his head comfortingly. “C’mon. Do you need me to tuck you in?” 

“You’re so mean to me.” The Doctor half-grumbled, half-whined in a joking manner as he stumbled towards the bed. He didn’t know his muscles could be so stiff as he fell under the covers. 

“Shall I kiss you goodnight?” Was The Butler’s mocking response as he turned out the light and closed the door. “Goodnight, Doctor. If you are not asleep by the time you come back, I shall find it necessary to take alternative measures.” 

The Doctor just wished he had a little bit more time as he nestled underneath a blanket. Time. Timelord. Lord of time. 

He sat up in bed. “We have a Time Machine.” He quickly threw his legs over the sides of the bed and grabbed his shoes, his computer, and his lucky sonic screwdriver. He could escape out the window and then his roommate wouldn’t be concerned about him anymore. Besides, Time machines. He could spend as long as he wanted working on the stupid reflection and getting some zzz's and doing whatever before The Butler even decided to notice. 

Yes. Brilliant. Best plan of this century. He pushed up the window and didn’t even gawk at the drop. It’d be short enough. His bones were strong. He’d taken enough calcium-enriched food fairly recently. It still hurt when he hit the ground, though. 

Grass felt good. Air felt good. Sun felt-not as good. The Doctor blinked. No. Stop it. You’re getting distracted.

He ran towards the library, dodging through the crowd of people. “Sorry, pardon, sorry again, would you watch where you're going please?” The Doctor was panting as he reached the front desk. “I’d like to check out a TARDIS please.”

“What now?” The librarian, an older man, looked down at him with much concern written in his scrunched up nose. “Are you-”

“Please. I have an assignment. I just need more time.”

“So you want a spaceship.” 

“A TARDIS. Time and Relative Dimension In Space Ships, yes.” The Doctor explained. “Please-”

“Do you have your ID?”

The Doctor held out his wallet that contained his psychic papers, while willing every single thought to show his Gallifreyan issued ID. That had gone missing for some time, but he wasn’t willing to pay the couple of credits to get it replaced. 

“Ah, yes. You’ll need to leave your dorm key as collateral, you understand.” The librarian sighed while maybe muttering something about “kids these days” but that might have been something of an auditory hallucination. 

The Doctor reached into his pocket and handed the key over. “Thanks so much.” 

The Librarian handed him a different key. “That one goes to the blue one over there. She’s a bit stuck in her camouflage circuit right now, so keep that in mind when traveling in the time stream.” 

The Doctor nodded, snatching the keys with more force than intended. “Thanks a million, sir. You’re fantastic. Brilliant, even. Allons-y!” And the Doctor was running towards a large blue police box faster than he had been running to the library. 

It’s bigger on the inside. He thought with approval. That’s good. And it has a bean bag chair! Perfect place for a nap. 

He placed the keys into the TARDIS, and it roared to life and The Doctor cackled. “GENIUS!” He grinned from ear to ear. “All of Time and Space to find a place to do homework and take a nap.” 

Maybe nap first. He’d go to Earth, probably. The Police Box would look really inconspicuous there. Could nap for ages. Then he could go to the planet that was just one giant library and knock out that reflection paper. 

He made the mistake of sitting down in the beanbag chair, and the tired heaviness of exhaustion returned. The Butler was right. I need to curl up and not wake for a century or two. TARDIS? Wake me up when we reach something interesting. 

[starheirxero]

I finally came around to watching the Dazzle episodes, and Oh my god, I love them-

Dazzle is such an interesting character!! They make me so curious!! Who are they, and how come, no one has noticed them until now?? I understand Sun and Lunar's thought process, about the computer's inability to detect a third life in the daycare, but shouldn't they at least be on the cameras? They have a physical body, after all! Unless there's something off with their endoskeleton, that is🤔

I also can't help but wonder, how long they've been around! When did they wake up? If they were a prototype of music man, then they must've been around for a long time, possibly even longer than Sun and Moon!

Hell, how did they wake up?? Has something turned them on??? Or have they been active since the place first opened?

And if it's the latter, I wonder, why they are so child-like, considering how fast animatronics, robotic and bio-organic, are shown to mature! I doubt they were build this way, considering they were meant to be a DJ, and almost as tall as Earth! It could be due to being incomplete? Though, with Jake and Andrew around, there's also the possibility of possession!

This whole situation seems a bit off, and I'm definitely suspicious of something bigger possibily going on! However, we'll just have to wait and see for now!

One thing I do want to point out, is that they remind me of early Lunar, in a strange way.

Though Lunar wasn't meant to be one, they did basically start out as a kid, who just wanted to explore and play, thanks to the way their AI was made! Unlike their siblings, they were made with only the necessary, knowing only who their brother is, and what their mission is, likely so they'd depend on Eclipse more. They didn't even know the basics. Unlike other animatronics, who already had everything they needed to know programmed into them, Lunar's AI developed and matured through experience instead! Unlike other animatronics, who were programmed with a fully developed AI, Lunar had to reach this point on their own! Hell, even now, they aren't fully there yet, their development stunted due to their trauma!

I think, Dazzle could be in a similar situation with their AI! I think, Lunar noticed this too, considering how much they softened up! Though it could just be their dca mode! I am probably reading too much into this-

-Stardust

I CAN'T GET OVER THAT I WAS RIGHT ABOUT THAT EITHER IM AHAJAHSJSBD MY JOKING SILLY SWAG LEADS TO FUTURE VISION /silly

BUT ALL OF THIS YEA YEA YEA!!!! EVERYTHING ABT THEM IS HONESTLY SUPER INTRIGUING TO ME. There's so many questions about their entire existence that I am absolutely dying to know (ESPECIALLY IN REGARDS TO THEM LIVING IN THE WALLS FOR WHO-KNOWS-HOW-LONG ?!?!!!) and I am SO excited to see what comes of it and where they end up!!!

AND I CAN SEE THE EARLY LUNAR COMPARISON TBH YEA !! It's that delightful and silly whimsy vibe.... the impression that'd they'd use emoticons audibly if they could (/silly). If Lunar did soften up bc they see themselves in Dazzle I will EXPLODE btw. I will be emotional times 1 million

[studentbyday]

hello, i drafted an aesthetic studyblr post for today, but didn't feel like posting it bc today is an ugly rant kind of day. (more kermits under the cut)

AAAAHHHHHH STUPID FREAKING WINDOWS- 😩😫😭🤬🤬🤬 so i was working on my laptop for these past few days which uses a different ms office version from the computer i switched to today and all my work was LOST!! 😭😭 all the notes i took on OneNote (at least it was just the psyc notes i had done on the laptop - idk what i would do if biochem or mol bio notes were lost. i'd probably cry for real) and all the work i did on that biochem paper? GONE!! my brother uses LibreOffice so i finally switched to that (altho their UI isn't that nice). at this point, i might as well switch to linux (unless that would cause unforeseen problems if i still sometimes do work on windows? idk) 😅 any recs for free notes apps that have a small learning curve and are OneNote-like?

the STRANGEST part is, some of the notes and lost files came back as i was working?? i didn't do anything and i *swear* i wasn't seeing things, so like, WTF??? not that i'm complaining. i hope the entire week of psyc notes i lost comes back. if not, i'll probs rewrite them if i have time. i hope i have time. i really hate this.

also, good thing i didn't like the way i wrote the biochem paper so far. i rewrote the thing in a google doc instead just to be safe and i like the way it flows much better now. AND!!! it's super annoying that i had to do this, but my handwritten notes on the main article i'm basing my paper on were confusing me. like, in terms of the flow of the biochemistry. so i basically rewrote those notes, doing this huge web in paint and idk if i could've done that on the first read instead of the way i did it. i hate feeling like i've done double work.

after rewriting the paper (i'm not even done yet - there are several things i wanna add yet and some facts i wanna clarify) and my notes on the article for said paper, i was exhausted. i tried to switch gears by reading the instructions/background for the biochem discussion post due tmr (that i was supposed to write today 😒) but i don't get it. it's like i didn't cover lipoproteins at all! i don't remember anything! what am i here* for if i can't remember anything?!

update: i answered 1 question for the discussion post. i still have to answer 1 more but i need to finish reading the background info first.

ALSO! i was supposed to study for 6+ hours today. i have no idea how long i actually studied bc i kept stopping and starting the study with me video and i worked through the breaks anyway, so the dinging timers were just annoying.

*"here" as in at uni, studying, although if in the right mood, it could also expand to my entire existence 🙂 (luckily i'm too angry rn to feel philosophical 😒)

okay, let's try not to end so sour. good things that happened today:

physio exercises ✅

skincare ✅ (i have added lip balm to the list asides from lotion bc the chapped state hurts 🙁)

mol bio quiz ✅

journal ✅

tomorrow will be better. and if it doesn't start out right, imma fight it until it is and i won't be defeated 😠

[its-all-papaya]

FIC WRITER INTERVIEW

ty for the tag @bright-and-burning booping u like a tumblr cat paw

How many works do you have on AO3?

uhhhh six if you count the lestappen i put on anon and the comp thing that's just a collection of kiss prompt fills that did not become their own fics

What's your total AO3 word count?

35,045

What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

even if it ends (460)

anybody, nowhere (319)

the devil in me (310)

gentle with the ache (236) i am this fic's deadbeat dad like i'm not going to pretend i didn't write it but you can only interact with it if ur gonna be nice bc it makes me want to scream cry & throw up

the hollow hereafter (217)

Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

i literally respond to every single comment ! if i don't know what to say i will think of something ! comments literally keep me alive. like i joke about writing for attention but genuinely the thought of receiving comments and reblog tags is what keeps me going on my wip's. i have the biggest praise kink that has EVER existed and god knows nobody is praising me for anything ever in my real life, so i gotta take what i can get. it's insane that real people read my words and have enough thoughts about them to like... type those thoughts out. so i must thank every individual person with a heart and a virtual kiss on their head.

What's the fic you've written with the angstiest ending?

even if it ends for suuuure. i had people threatening self-harm in the ao3 bookmarks of that one in a loving way, and that's without even knowing about the rich inner life that i didn't expand on the way i originally planned to. in my brain, oscar has already decided to leave mclaren by the time the events of that fic happen bc their teammateship has gotten so self-destructive, so lando's "you can't stay" and oscar's "i know, but i want to anyway" is so much more knife-to-the-heart than y'all even realize.

What's the fic you've written with the happiest ending?

uh. i don't really want to count the kiss prompts because they don't really exist to me as fic, so... anybody, nowhere i guess? the devil in me is not NOT happy. can i cheat and say dad lando even though it doesn't actually exist yet?

Do you write crossovers?

no jesus christ i can barely write characters outside of oscar and lando (and apparently max fewtrell according to like two people). adding in even MORE variables is making me nauseous just thinking about it.

Have you ever received hate on a fic?

"hate" is a strong word but there is a reason that my lestappen is on anon now.

Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

i do write it sometimes, but not very successfully (glaring at u lestappen garbage). i have two landoscar wip's that are basically pwp, but i just don't really think i'm good at smut, so idk if they'll ever go anywhere for real. the pacing is simply so impossible to me. like how soon is too soon to have an orgasm. also like 90% of my writing is just knockoff versions of my own emotions from various points, and so as someone who only hooks up with people for reasons not really related to actually getting off, i find it really really hard to write the build-up and come-down from smut WHILE ALSO really struggling with the actual acts. like what are normal people's brains doing before during and after making someone come? bc i guarantee it is not what my brain does. it just doesn't really compute unfortunately.

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

i don't think my fics have existed long enough to be stolen tbh.

Have you ever had a fic translated?

no

Have you ever co-written a fic before?

no but i wrote literally millions of words while roleplaying in any number of ships back in the day.

What's your all-time favorite ship?

i think probably steve/bucky of the marvel universe? i don't really fw it much at this exact moment because endgame literally ruined my life for a bit, but that's probably the ship i've enjoyed the most over the years.

What's a WIP that you want to finish but don't think you ever will?

honestly all of my wip's outside of dad lando and that nutcracker thing i'm definitely not writing shhh. I will fight shave fic eventually i think. the wip that's absolutely never getting finished the most securely is the fake dating thing based on that kiss prompt i filled in like july. like it's a 50k concept that i have like 5k worth of motivation for.

What are your writing strengths?

um. i think just, like. prose that sounds nice? i think i did a good job putting readers inside of lando's head in anybody, nowhere, so i'd say i'm occasionally good at translating emotion/headspace too. actually i'll go ahead and say that about all of my published landoscar, because i think that's even if it ends' strength too. dad lando is less that way, but it has other things going for it.

What are your writing weaknesses?

i'm really really mean to myself, so it's hard to pick just one. i'm bad at writing characters distinctly i think. like i just make them do things based on what feels good in my brain and just hope that y'all don't think they're OOC, but whenever i stop to think "what would oscar say here?" it's like... blank. bc i don't know. and it's really MUCH worse with everyone outside of landoscar. i also don't think my pacing is very good and i get hung up on details people won't care about and also i have a compulsive need to make EVERYTHING a metaphor. i'm going to stop there bc insecurity isn't very cute but i also over-edit and introduce too many threads and i could literally go on all night

What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

i don't honestly see the point? because either you provide a translation, which defeats the purpose, or you don't, which makes it a secret for some readers but NOT the ones who speak the language in question. i'm spoiled by native-english-speakers landoscar as my primary ship, but i think if i ever wanted to write a convo between like. charles and pierre, ig, i would just write it in english and be like "they said in french" afterwards of smthn, idk. i think the only time i've written in not-english is that lestappen "after a long wait" kiss prompt and it was like a language device (haha) and not dialogue.

What was the first fandom you wrote for?

i've only ever published on ao3 for F1. way way back i used to fill prompts on tumblr for one direction, which was the first fandom content of any kind that i wrote. the first actual fanfic i ever typed into a word document was finnpoe from the star wars sequel trilogy. so depends how you wanna define!

What's a fandom/ship you haven't written for yet but want to?

i got really really spooked by my lestappen adventure because it actually broke my brain for a bit, so now i'm scared to write anything but landoscar. i think the most likely non-landoscar ship i'd write is maxiel, probably? i saw them across the bar and loved their vibe. daniel feels kind of impossible for me to write though so idk if i ever will.

What's your favorite fic you've written?

anybody, nowhere i think, because i think it's the most complete thing i've done. i also really love how even if it ends turned out too, which is crazy bc i haaaaated it mid-writing process. i think it feels really like... i don't know. gritty? messy in a way that makes it authentic? idk how to describe. i think even if it ends has my favorite characterizations i've written for both lando AND oscar. but anybody, nowhere is my firstborn and i treasure her, so. yeah. tie, maybe.

tagging @fear8not1 (i know ur like. not on tumblr. but in case u would like to) and @volantium !!

[seancamerons]

as far 90s shows, did anyone watch any of these:

teen angel it was like on after sabrina or something during the tgif era of the 90s? i found it lowkey funny, idk if it was like shortlived i assume that, but idk if it was good or cringey? i think it was only on for one or two at the most seasons, i remember he would literally talk to the moon/stars/god but also like have teenager hijinks

smart guy as it is, a smart guy. young kid maybe 10 years old in college, skiped grade school/high school and is now in college with his dumb brother. i think it was on disney channel.

my brother and me a two season show on nickelodeon in the 90s, i don't remember that much about it tbh, just that it existed and i know i watched it but idk if it held my attention. it seemed run of the mill early nickeloeon two brothers, their friends and random things that would happen like in the style of most of the shows of the time.

gulah gulah island a show about a family and a large amphibian friend of their family on a island (where is gulahgulah?) i was able to do a killer impression of the pollywog. i would make a garden bc the mom had one in the summer before kindergarten and i would sing plant a seed in my garden, my garden my garden plant a seed in my garden watch it grow 🎶 i still if i hear it on a nostalgic video sing the theme. i found out the husband and wife are an actual couple irl earlier this year, and simeon (sp?) and shayna i think was their child biologically. the other two kids were hired to be their other kids, the one daughter was on keenan and kel as far as i know. she played keenan's sister who crushed on kel after gulah gulah ended.

pete and pete a show in the 90's quirky as all get out. good music, good vibes, a child with a beautiful mermaid tattoo and more questions than answers tbh. the mom had a plate in her head, thee dad was oblivious, speaking of oblivious the next show:

the secret world of alex mac yet another 90's show, about a girl with a secret, which the theme gives you the run down, alex is not average in the slightest. i loved that show and people often forget all about it.

so let's just say everyone knows sabrina, but do they remember clarissa? if you don't know, clarissa explains it all. i think there were a few things she didn't know about, or left out. clarissa was the effortlessly cool girl, but she was also painfully average and her brother reminded her of that, much to her chargrin. from her cool ass bedroom, her boy bestie sam who'd climb in the window via ladder, and she nonchalantly greeted him with a friendly, "hi sam!", her weird ginger brother who was like a 'genius' but a jerk at the same time, her descriptions and slideshows about things she'd explain in detail at length, her dated little computer, her pet in the sandbox and a lot more things i forgot or are self-explanatory. na na nanna, nananananaana, hey cool!

doug if he's not bangin' on a trashcan, blasting killer tofu, arguing with his parents, clashing with his thespian sister, in the company of a blue dog named after dinner parents cook and kids love to hate, beefing with a rival in a leather jacket with a cat sidekick, or with mayor's stuck up daughter, surrounded by random kids with quirky names and dining a cool hangout called the honker burger he was writing in a journal or dreaming of fake worlds that are anything but normal. he was doug was one of the defining guys in 90s cool back in the day, he was cool bc he wasn't a showboat or an over confident or arrogant guy like chalky studebaker at times, or green-skinned rival roger who came off like a coward internally but tough and had an obnoxious laugh on the outside. he 's a guy in middle school with tensions with the principal, a total everyman with a big imagination who wrote his dreams, thoughts, and hopes in a journal, crushed on his girl next door/the show essential 'good girl' patti mayonnaise and of course, he had a loyal bestie skeeter. if it were 99-the 00s it was the spongebob/patrick dynamic, and even doug had an alter ego which was quail man. i believe the original story of doug, he was new to town and he came to be fast friends with skeeter, and quick enemies with their principal who always threatened him to put things on his permanent record, which i was afraid of when it was time for me to go to school when it came to going to the office for anything tbh.

[rlyehtaxidermist]

Followed you bc of your immortality post and I just want to say don't listen to the haters. I feel the EXACT same way. Time and life are the only things we can't ever get back once they're gone, and I'm not even sure about life. With enough time, any other problem can theoretically be overcome. It legitimately infuriates me that we as a species aren't making it priority number one to research anti-aging things (like telomerase) when our ultimate struggle is against the forces of entropy and death. Everything else is an aside.

I feel like we could someday achieve immortality through purely scientific means if we actually dedicated the time and resources to it, and therefore my precious life (and everyone else's) is being stolen by everyone who doesn't understand that. I was about to say that is the second greatest injustice in existence, right after mortality itself - but as I write this, I realize it's actually THE greatest, since "injustice" not caused by a sentient entity is simply misfortune.

I'm not nearly as confident about scientific "immortality", even defined as negligible senescence in homo sapiens.

Our understanding of biology isn't there yet, and despite what the singularitarians claim, it's not just a question of throwing more computing power and magically precipitating a solution. There's already exaflops going into folding@home and that's just one piece of the problem of basic cellular functions, let alone "simulating a brain" or understanding the full process involved in aging and hypothetical anti-aging.

The concept seems possible, but there is a world of difference between a plausible abstract concept and something that can be actually designed, demonstrated, replicated, and engineered. The few species with "biological immortality" are very, very different from mammals, such that few of the concepts transfer. Ideas are a dime a dozen without proper theory behind them, and the "engineered negligible senescence" movement has been... rather infamously soft on its theory. (There's a reason I refer to "someone with expertise in one field overgeneralising and making sweeping statements about fields in which they have no actual knowledge" as "Kurzweiling".)

The issue with "if this is possible, we are being robbed by people not putting resources towards it" is that if it is impossible, all of those resources are being pulled away from everything else. It's essentially a secularised Pascal's wager, claiming a hypothetical infinite reward justifies the exclusion of purportedly finite opportunity costs (see also: Roko's basilisk, which does the same thing with a hypothetical infinite punishment and purportedly finite fixed costs).

(As an aside, it's notable that Pascal himself did not intend his wager to be logically consistent, but to serve as a counterargument for the use of logical reasoning in questions of religion, something that its apologist proponents have gone on to ignore for centuries.)

That's not to say there's not plenty of waste in society and in academia, but I think it's inappropriate to define waste in terms of any singular goal - especially one that's essentially a high concept. There is plenty of work being done to understand aging, and lots of wealthy, aging, and anxious people to bankroll it, but the idea that it could be solved by simply throwing more money and mythical man-months at it is unconvincing to me.

That's not even getting into the social questions of who would control the means of producing and administering a hypothetical anti-aging treatment, because our current institutions are not set up to resolve that equitably.